Putin is nervous about acute shortage of personnel in Russian Pacific Fleet

He said this on Espreso TV. 

“Russia has been dreaming for a long time, almost since the beginning of its aggression against Ukraine, that a conflict would break out in the South China Sea around Taiwan, especially that China would be drawn into the conflict and would start to resolve at least one dispute militarily. I can tell you that there are hundreds of such disputes in South and East Asia, especially territorial ones. Firstly, it is very important to understand why Putin summoned Shoigu and what is behind this. Because in fact, it turned out that the Russian Pacific Fleet marines and other personnel were destroyed by our Armed Forces on the eastern and southern fronts in Ukraine. And now the acute shortage of military personnel in the Russian Pacific Fleet is problem number one. That's why Putin is so nervous, looking down at Shoigu and asking him for something,” the former SBU chief said.

Valentyn Nalyvaichenko noted that the inspection of the Russian Pacific Fleet and the exercises in the Far East over the past two days have revealed the problems that really exist.

“Secondly, we also need to understand that in the north, Sweden and its ten allies, and in the Far East, Japan, the United States and other countries are conducting large-scale international anti-missile exercises around Russia's borders. The whole world, the entire anti-Putin coalition, is demonstrating with military means and exercises that not a single missile or missile blackmail by Russia will pass. That is why Putin and the Russian military and political leadership are so nervous these days. And now Japan is an extremely important political and military-political ally for us. Ukraine signed an important statement on global partnership during the visit of the Japanese Prime Minister to Kyiv. And this is another reason why Russia is so nervous. Let me remind you that the Northern Territories that Russia calls the Kuril Islands are actually Japanese islands occupied by the Russian Federation. The weakening and nervousness of Russia raises huge questions for those countries that have territorial claims against Russia,” Nalyvaichenko said.

• On April 14, Russia decided to conduct an unannounced inspection of the Pacific Fleet.

• The Institute for the Study of War also noted that the Pacific Fleet exercises are Russia's attempt to show power that does not exist.