Top Russian propagandist Vladimir Solovyov has been spending his weekends on the frontlines in order to support and promote Russia’s stuttering invasion of Ukraine. Unfortunately for the Kremlin, all that time being confronted by the grim reality is teaching Solovyov just how badly this war is going.
And he’s not happy about it.
In a wild rant on Thursday, Solovyov attacked the overall strategy, claimed the Russian Army was failing miserably to suppress their enemies, and said he had first-hand evidence of foolish tactical errors on the frontline.
ADVERTISEMENT
During his show Full Contact, Solovyov was raging about the recent announcement that Ukraine would soon be getting Abrams and Leopard-2 tanks from NATO countries. The host started his monologue with a deep sigh, asking, “So, we lived long enough to see this?” He urged the audience not to trust the numbers of the tanks slated for the upcoming deliveries, predicting they will send even more: “They will deliver everything. I’ve been saying it for a while, these bastards will also rehabilitate Hitler in our lifetime... this is where everything is going... WWIII is underway and the West has returned to its Nazi roots. Germany got tired of concealing its Nazi nature and America finally openly acknowledged its own Nazi ways.”
Calling Americans “conniving liars,” Solovyov said that their arrogance is Russia’s own fault: “We aren’t creating any threats against them. We aren’t conducting strikes against New York, we aren’t banging Washington, we aren’t threatening Miami, we aren’t doing anything to endanger Americans. They blew up our pipelines, we just wiped our face off. They’re delivering heavy tanks, we’re wiping our face off. Stop talking about red lines! It’s a totally empty phrase that doesn’t mean a thing!”
Enraged, Solovyov screamed: “Berlin, Paris, Madrid, London, Washington should be on fire! The capitals of Nazi countries who made a decision to go to war with Russia... Why wasn’t Kyiv wiped off the face of the earth after the Nazi nation of Ukraine conducted a strike against our strategic aviation base? Stop resorting to empty, worthless words!”
The host went on to claim: “Strikes are being carried out against our cities! Against our land! Russian soldiers are perishing! Russian people are dying! Nazis are rejoicing! How are we planning to respond? By howling that avoiding nuclear war is the most important thing? Then why the heck do we have a stockpile of tactical and strategic nuclear weapons? To be afraid to use it? So that big decorated generals would gasp, “Do you want a nuclear war?” Do you want the destruction of Russia with conventional weapons, of which NATO countries have 3 and a half times more than we do?”
Solovyov yelled that destroying Ukraine’s infrastructure was insufficient. He demanded to know: “Why do Odesa, Kharkiv, Dnipropetrovsk [Dnipro] still exist?” He angrily shouted: “We are no longer stationed near Kyiv! Was it a damn goodwill gesture? A goodwill gesture? And Kharkiv was a goodwill gesture? No one was executed by shooting for [surrendering] Kharkiv! No one was sent into retirement, at least not publicly. The society didn’t get any answers to its questions. I’m asking you, why did you move the frontline closer to Belgorod? We still didn’t get back to those positions! In response—silence. Silence.”
Solovyov demanded that enemies be destroyed “on their land”: “Citizens of NATO countries should not feel at peace, while the Russian man is suffering... Citizens! A war has been declared against us. Wake up! Wake up.”
Solovyov’s guest, military correspondent Alexander Kots, revealed one of the reasons for the host’s helpless rage: glaring incompetence and mismanagement of the invading forces by their military leadership. Discussing new items slated for delivery to Ukraine by NATO countries, Kots said: “While we have this list, only on paper for now, we should start thinking about what we will do when or if all of it gets to the frontlines. Somehow, we have to counter their artillery systems and tanks. For the last month, throughout the holidays, as a member of the presidential Human Rights Council, I was receiving outraged and concerned messages from the relatives [of soldiers]. We have trained—I won’t say how many, but a decent quantity of the artillery battalions, but all of them were sent to the infantry. This is a huge number of people, we’ve been training them for three months, spending ammo, spending money to house them, great instructors from our military universities—including the Mikhailovskaya Artillery Military Academy—had given their time and knowledge to train them. With respect to our artillery, it’s a very sad story... we don’t have any artillery schools left! We used to have eleven and now only Mikhailovskaya remains.”
Solovyov remarked that he was aware of this problem because of his frontline visits. Kots added that the same issue is happening with the anti-tank divisions, describing them as “the very units that should have been the ones meeting this tank Armada, burning up those Abrams and Leopard tanks. Instead, for some reason, they’re also being transferred to the infantry. I can’t understand why this is happening... We professionally trained up specialists, trained them well, but they sit without being given appropriate tasks... While we’re facing a threat of these deliveries from the West to the frontlines by Spring, it’s very wasteful on our part.”
Solovyov chimed in: “I understand that you don’t fight tanks with tanks, you use other means. Our anti-tank fist should be ready.” Kots hit him over the head with more bad news: “The first line of defense that will be meeting these tanks will often be comprised of mobilized men. Our mobilized soldiers on the frontlines are armed solely with Kalashnikovs. Unfortunately, there are no anti-tank weapons on many stretches of the frontline.”
Solovyov reverted to his favorite topic, claiming that it’s only a matter of time before NATO gives the Ukrainians tactical nuclear weapons. He said, “I believe that the use of tactical nuclear weapons is unavoidable. The question is who will do it first: us or them.” Playing along, Kots pointed out: “The tanks that are being delivered contain depleted uranium.” After Solovyov noted that depleted uranium is not radioactive, Kots suggested: “It could still be used as the pretext, in order to use our tactical nuclear weapons.”
But even his trademark shtick of threatening Russia’s adversaries with nuclear mayhem failed to bring the bitter propagandist even a modicum of customary satisfaction. Introducing his next guest, Solovyov bitterly complained: “I’m sad. All of this is very sad.”
