Ukraine war: Vladimir Putin would sacrifice 20 million soldiers to win and ensure political survival, exiled diplomat says
Vladimir Putin would sacrifice 20 million Russian soldiers to win the war with Ukraine and ensure his political survival, an exiled Russian diplomat has said.
Boris Bondarev, who quit Russia’s permanent mission at the United Nations in Geneva over the war, told Sky News Mr Putin’s “luck is over”.
Speaking to Beth Rigby, he said: “I think the 20 years of him in power have been very lucky for him.
“He is not smart, he is just lucky. Now I think his luck is over.”
Mr Bondarev, who worked in nuclear disarmament, described the level of Mr Putin’s desperation – saying he is prepared to see more than a tenth of the population killed in the conflict.
“After losing the war, he will have to explain to his elites and his population why it is so and he may find some problems in explaining this.
“And after that there may be opposition who will try to depose him or he will try to purge his subordinates to find some people who could be blamed for all these problems. There will be a period of internal turmoil.
“You should have no doubt about it, he may sacrifice 10 or 20 million Russians just to win this war just to slaughter all Ukrainians because it’s a matter of principle. It’s a matter of political survival to him.
“You have to understand that, if he loses the war, it will be the end for him.
Mr Putin’s decision to expand Russian forces by 137,000 troops next year has led to accusations he is leading young, inexperienced conscripts to their deaths.
Others have claimed they are being tricked and misled.
Pic: AP
Two months of fear before he could quit Russia mission
Mr Bondarev, who is based in Geneva, said he made his decision to quit when tanks crossed the Ukrainian border in February, but he could not leave until May.
“I had some affairs to be settled before I quit,” he told Beth Rigby Interviews. “My cat was in Moscow at the time, so we had to get him back to Geneva and it took three months.
“During these two months I was very afraid.
“After the war started they [colleagues] all turned out to be warmongering and very content with what is going on.”
He, however, said he could “no longer work for this government, this country” … “making war crimes and terrible mistakes and crimes against our future generations”.
He admitted he “did not believe President Putin was seriously going to start the war” before it happened.
But now, as intelligence officials warn the Kremlin may be planning a nuclear strike in the Black Sea, Mr Bondarev claims it is not a threat that should be taken lightly.
“I believe that there can be some plans to somehow deploy nuclear weapons during this war in Ukraine,” he said.
“The West, I think, must be consistent to remove Putin because while he and his regime is still in power in Russia, the threat of nuclear war will not go anywhere.”
He added that the Russian leader is using the nuclear button to “compel other countries to whatever he wants”, which he says is a “new level of history of nuclear weapons” and a “very dangerous development”.
Putin hosts a meeting of the Russian security council
Calls for NATO involvement
Mr Bondarev suggested that, as “Putin thinks he’s already waging the Third World War”, NATO should consider entering the conflict.
NATO expansion in eastern Europe was one of the main reasons Mr Putin cited for starting the war.
Most intelligence officials agree NATO’s formal involvement would lead to a major escalation.
But Mr Bondarev said: “They [the Ukrainians] need offensive weapons, more long-range missiles, aircraft.
“So I think NATO must double down the efforts and help.”
He added that while Mr Putin is vehemently anti-NATO, the views of the Russian people are different.
“Russian people, especially younger generations, they don’t see NATO as some kind of existential enemy, they are totally okay with that, as NATO is a defensive organisation,” he said.
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In full: Beth Rigby interviews Boris Bondarev
On hopes of getting China’s President Xi Jinping to help deescalate tensions with the Kremlin, he was doubtful.
“The problem is that China is not very much interested in the defeat of Putin, especially by Ukrainians and by Westerners.
“Because now Putin is attracting a lot of attention from the US, the attention that they refocus on China instead.”
World
‘Widespread sexual violence’ took place during Hamas’s 7 October attacks, report by Israeli experts says
A newly released report led by Israeli legal and gender experts presents detailed evidence alleging “widespread and systematic” sexual violence during the Hamas-led terror attack on 7 October.
Warning: This story contains descriptions of rape and sexual violence
The findings, published by the Dinah Project, argue that these acts amount to conflict-related sexual violence (CRSV), and assert that “Hamas used sexual violence as a tactical weapon of war”.
The report draws on 18 months of investigation and is based on survivor testimonies, eyewitness accounts, and interviews with first responders, morgue personnel and healthcare professionals.
According to the Dinah Project, the documented patterns – such as forced nudity, gang rapes, genital mutilation, and threats of forced marriage – indicate a deliberate and coordinated use of sexual violence by Hamas operatives during the attack.
Reported incidents span at least six locations, including the Nova music festival, and several kibbutzim in southern Israel.
A destroyed car near the police station in Sderot, following the 7 October attacks by Hamas. Pic: AP
One section of the report describes victims “found fully or partially naked from the waist down, with their hands tied behind their backs and/or to structures such as trees and poles, and shot”.
At the Nova music festival and surrounding areas, the investigators found “reasonable grounds to believe” that multiple women were raped or gang-raped before being killed.
The report’s findings are consistent with earlier investigations by the United Nations and the International Criminal Court (ICC).
Read more:
What is the possible Gaza hostage and ceasefire deal?
Israeli soldier describes arbitrary killing of civilians in Gaza
The UN’s Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict previously concluded that there were “reasonable grounds to believe” CRSV took place during the attack.
Destroyed vehicles near the grounds of the Supernova electronic music festival. Pic: AP
Significantly, the Dinah Project urges the international community to officially recognise the use of sexual violence by Hamas as a deliberate strategy of war and calls on the United Nations to add Hamas to its list of parties responsible for conflict-related sexual violence.
Listen to The World with Richard Engel and Yalda Hakim every Wednesday
The nature and scale of sexual violence on 7 October have been a subject of intense controversy, with some accusing parties of weaponising the narrative for political ends.
This report seeks to confront what its authors call “denial, misinformation, and global silence,” and to provide justice for the victims.
Hamas has denied that its fighters have used sexual violence and mistreated female hostages.
World
Israeli soldiers ‘psychologically broken’ after ‘confronting the reality’ in Gaza, UN expert says
A UN expert has said some young soldiers in the Israeli Defence Forces are being left “psychologically broken” after “confront[ing] the reality among the rubble” when serving in Gaza.
Francesca Albanese, the UN Human Rights Council’s special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories, was responding to a Sky News interview with an Israeli solider who described arbitrary killing of civilians in Gaza.
She told The World with Yalda Hakim that “many” of the young people fighting in Gaza are “haunted by what they have seen, what they have done”.
“It doesn’t make sense,” Ms Albanese said. “This is not a war, this is an assault against civilians and this is producing a fracture in many of them.
“As that soldier’s testimony reveals, especially the youngest among the soldiers have been convinced this is a form of patriotism, of defending Israel and Israeli society against this opaque but very hard felt enemy, which is Hamas.
“But the thing is that they’ve come to confront the reality among the rubble of Gaza.”
An Israeli soldier directs a tank near the border with the Gaza Strip, in southern Israel. Pic: AP
Being in Gaza is “probably this is the first time the Israeli soldiers are awakening to this,” she added. “And they don’t make sense of this because their attachment to being part of the IDF, which is embedded in their national ideology, is too strong.
“This is why they are psychologically broken.”
Jonathan Conricus, a former IDF spokesman who is now a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defence of Democracies, said he believes the Sky News interview with the former IDF solider “reflects one part of how ugly, difficult and horrible fighting in a densely populated, urban terrain is”.
“I think [the ex-soldier] is reflecting on how difficult it is to fight in such an area and what the challenges are on the battlefield,” he said.
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Ex-IDF spokesperson: ‘No distinction between military and civilians’
‘An economy of genocide’
Ms Albanese, one of dozens of independent UN-mandated experts, also said her most recent report for the human rights council has identified “an economy of genocide” in Israel.
The system, she told Hakim, is made up of more than 60 private sector companies “that have become enmeshed in the economy of occupation […] that have Israel displace the Palestinians and replace them with settlers, settlements and infrastructure Israel runs.”
Israel has rejected allegations of genocide in Gaza, citing its right to defend itself after Hamas’s attack on 7 October 2023.
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‘Israel has shifted towards economy of genocide’
The companies named in Ms Albanese’s report are in, but not limited to, the financial sector, big tech and the military industry.
“These companies can be held responsible for being directed linked to, or contributing, or causing human rights impacts,” she said. “We’re not talking of human rights violations, we are talking of crimes.”
“Some of the companies have engaged in good faith, others have not,” Ms Albanese said.
Read more:
Israeli soldier describes arbitrary killing of civilians in Gaza
British surgeons on life in Gaza
Listen to The World with Richard Engel and Yalda Hakim every Wednesday
The companies she has named include American technology giant Palantir, which has issued a statement to Sky News.
It said it is “not true” that Palantir “is the (or a) developer of the ‘Gospel’ – the AI-assisted targeting software allegedly used by the IDF in Gaza, and that we are involved with the ‘Lavender’ database used by the IDF for targeting cross-referencing”.
“Both capabilities are independent of and pre-ate Palantir’s announced partnership with the Israeli Defence Ministry,” the statement added.
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