Lew Bryson

The Telegraph published an article titled “Putin is down. This is the time to start kicking him.” It’s a very powerful piece that deserves a detailed analysis. The author is Colonel Hamish de Bretton-Gordon, former commander of the 1st Royal Tank Regiment and commander of the UK’s Joint Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear Regiment. This is a rare instance where a high-ranking Western military officer is directly telling the West: stop making concessions to Putin; it’s time to finish him off. “For the first time in two decades, Russia could not muster a single tank in what is traditionally the Kremlin’s grand annual exhibition of military might – an event Putin himself describes as a warning to Russia’s enemies. What the world witnessed was not power, but weakness: a diminished parade, hollow symbolism, and a regime increasingly fearful of its own vulnerability.” “With Ukrainian drones and missiles now capable of striking deep inside Russia, Putin clearly dared not risk displaying valuable military hardware at a known time and location. Instead, the regime relied heavily on massed marching formations, including North Korean troops, to create the illusion of scale and strength.” A British colonel bluntly states what we have seen ourselves: Putin fears Ukrainian drones so much that he canceled the display of equipment at his own celebration. “Even Putin’s speech, usually a lengthy endurance test in which the dictator indulges in imperial nostalgia and Soviet-era rhetoric, was remarkably brief and muted. Gone was the swagger of a leader convinced of inevitable victory. In its place stood a man attempting to justify an increasingly costly and strategically catastrophic war. Putin insisted Russia was fighting a “just” war and described Ukraine as an “aggressive force” being armed by NATO.” From “Kyiv in three days” to a “just war” against NATO. This is not the rhetoric of a victor. Separately, the author mentions Russia’s hybrid war against the West: “It is Russia, not the West, that has spent years conducting a sustained hybrid war against Europe and particularly the United Kingdom. The murder of Alexander Litvinenko and the attempted assassination of Sergei Skripal in Salisbury remain chilling reminders of the Kremlin’s willingness to conduct state-sponsored attacks on British soil, alongside relentless cyber warfare, sabotage and espionage across Europe.” This is an important point for Western readers — a reminder that Russia was waging war against them even before 2022. And it continues to do so everywhere to this day. Cut cables, blown-up warehouses, planes in NATO airspace — this is war, just without missiles for now. “Today, the battlefield reality is moving increasingly in Ukraine’s favour. Ukrainian forces continue to make incremental but meaningful advances while Russia suffers appalling losses in both manpower and equipment.” “At the same time, Ukraine has demonstrated an increasingly sophisticated ability to strike strategically important targets deep inside Russia, even without large-scale American military support. Critical infrastructure attacks are now placing growing pressure on the Russian economy and exposing the Kremlin’s inability to fully defend its own territory.” This is a very valuable insight regarding the current state of the war. The British colonel openly acknowledges what we are achieving on our own. Without American aid, under international pressure, and under constant attack — Ukraine is still ramping up the pressure on Russia. Separately, the author mentions the internal situation in Russia: “All of this comes amid growing signs of unease inside Russia itself. Public criticism of the war, once almost unthinkable, is becoming more visible as ordinary Russians begin to question the price of Putin’s disastrous gamble in Ukraine. This criticism would be even more evident were it not for a recent crackdown on internet services in Russia and the silencing of many dissenting voices.” But the most important point in the article is made in the conclusion, to which I can only give a standing ovation: “What Saturday demonstrated beyond doubt is that Putin is wounded politically, militarily and psychologically. History teaches us that when a dangerous predator is weakened, that is precisely the moment to apply maximum pressure – not to offer concessions for the sake of expediency. The most effective time to kick a man is when he’s down.” “The West must ensure that Volodymyr Zelensky is empowered to secure a just peace for the Ukrainian people, rather than allowing Putin an escape route simply to bring the fighting to a premature close.” This is precisely the logic we have been repeating for four years in a row. Concessions to the aggressor do not end the war — they merely postpone it. Poland waited 45 years to gain its freedom after Yalta. The Chechen Republic of Ichkeria signed the Khasavyurt Accords — and then more than 20 percent of its population was massacred. Ukraine has no right to let such a fate befall its people.