- Georgy Ivanovich, happy holiday!
- Thanks!
With your help, I would like to congratulate all servicemen and veterans of the Airborne Troops on the holiday.
Nobody except us!
I am sure that we will be able to survive in the new battle.
Are you talking about a special operation in Ukraine?
- Not.
Everything is clear there.
The Russian army will put pressure on the Armed Forces of Ukraine, no matter how the entire collective West helps them.
Matter of time.
I am beginning to be disturbed by the publications appearing in our country and talks on television talk shows that the structure of the Airborne Forces, their combat tactics have ceased to meet the requirements of the time.
Somehow it started to go in a series, as if by order.
- I read it, I saw it. It is argued that with the current saturation of combat formations with air defense systems, parachute landings as part of units become impossible: aircraft will be shot down on approach to the drop site. There is also a lot of talk about light armored vehicles of the Airborne Forces that supposedly the enemy’s defense cannot be penetrated with it ...
- I want to believe that all this is just the conclusions of "sofa experts."
An operation began in Ukraine, and many military experts appeared who not only did not receive a professional education, but even did not serve as soldiers in the army.
Only ignoramuses can reproach the Airborne Forces for what they should not do.
It is catastrophic stupidity to think that the Airborne Forces are obliged to break through the enemy's defenses or, in defense, to hold back the onslaught of his tanks.
First of all, our airborne assault force is intended for combat operations behind enemy lines.
It must capture and hold important areas until the main forces approach, disrupt the military command and control system, destroy command posts, missile launchers and air defense systems, and military bases.
On the other hand, it’s good if laymen talk about the elimination of the Airborne Forces.
But I suggest thinking about who benefits in the first place?
Enemies.
When the Soviet Union collapsed, the paratroopers saved Russia, and they cannot be forgiven for this.
Sumgayit, Abkhazia, Chechnya - everywhere the guys in blue vests were the first to come to clean up the trouble.
It was the only "fist" in the country that could prevent the further disintegration of our state.
That's why they tried to destroy him for the first time between the two Chechen wars.
© Photo from personal archive
- Paratroopers of many generations associate the preservation of the Airborne Forces in the mid-1990s with your name. Why then did they want to reduce and reassign the Airborne Forces, who was the initiator?
- I do not know.
Someone in President Boris Yeltsin's inner circle strongly promoted this idea.
The arguments were the same as today: the airborne units are not capable of carrying out strategic operations with the development of air defense systems, airborne military equipment is lightly armored, artillery is scarce ...
In practice, they instructed the then Minister of Defense, General Igor Rodionov, to carry out the reduction of our kind of troops.
He is a military man, took under the visor.
It was planned to drastically reduce the Airborne Forces and create an airborne corps on their basis, consisting of three divisions with headquarters in Tula.
Organizational measures have already been developed to reduce and reformat the Airborne Forces, transfer the newly formed corps to the Ground Forces.
- How did you manage to prevent the "murder" of the Airborne Forces?
- Paratroopers don't give up.
It was difficult, but we persevered.
Our arguments were reported to the Supreme Commander, they were convincing.
Boris Yeltsin decided to keep the Airborne Forces as a branch of the military.
The second Chechen war confirmed the correctness of this decision.
The paratroopers fought in the most important areas.
They are still on the cutting edge.
- How do our airborne troops look like in comparison with their combat mission colleagues in the world?
- As commander of the Russian Airborne Forces, I have repeatedly met with American generals.
I officially declare that they told me directly that they envy us: technology, tactics, the fighting spirit of the soldiers.
Look, while we are again whining about the uselessness of the Airborne Forces, the paratrooper units and the US Marine Corps are by no means being reduced, but are now developing according to our Russian model.
- Georgy Ivanovich, is it possible now to parachute a division of our Airborne Forces, for example, somewhere in the vicinity of Odessa?
- Not now.
The enemy is mobilized, at the ready, received new equipment from NATO countries, including many Stingers.
When the special operation was just beginning, with the support of the Aerospace Forces and the Black Sea Fleet, this could have happened.
After all, a brilliant landing operation took place in Gostomel, a strategic airfield near Kyiv, on the same bank of the Dnieper, was captured.
There is no need to force - go directly to the Ukrainian capital.
“But it ended, you know how…”
- The question is not military, the question is political.
These negotiations began with Kyiv comedians in caps ... If on Gostomel, until the Ukrainian military came to its senses and destroyed the runway with artillery fire, transport aircraft with the personnel and equipment of another airborne division on board would land, and a tank division approached the ground, then the history of the special operation could be completely different.
I still fear one.
- What?
— That the negotiations will start again.
I have been retired for a long time, of course, I do not own the whole situation.
However, objectively: in Ukraine, the president is a clown, and his team is a circus, what can you seriously negotiate with them?
“But behind Kyiv are Washington and Brussels.
“As soon as we achieve ‘peace’ on any of their terms, we’re done.
If you give them a finger, they will bite off your head, not like your hand.
We need only an unconditional victory.