Kyiv tries to rally West before ‘500,000 Russians’ go to front

Professor Michael Clarke, the former director-general of the Royal United Services Institute, said the Kremlin was trying to reassert authority by appointing Gerasimov and ready Russian forces for an offensive in the spring. “Putin is preparing for a more co-ordinated approach at the top of the Russian armed forces,” he said “The appointment of Gerasimov is a response to Prigozhin and [Ramzan] Kadyrov [the warlord leader of Chechnya] both overplaying their hand. The command chain is tightening up at the Kremlin end to defend itself against these wild warlords running around in Ukraine itself. Prigozhin has allowed Wagner fighters to go on camera and describe Putin, the Kremlin and the Russian armed forces as shit.”