Guest of the morning of Europe 1 this Wednesday March 2, the former head of Special Operations Christophe Gomart returned to the Russian invasion in Ukraine and shared his experience in the field in order to explain the workings and springs of this crisis that seems far from over.
While the cities of Kharkiv and Kiev were bombarded by Russian forces and the Ukrainian civilian population defended itself tooth and nail against the invasion, former general Christophe Gomart explained on Europe 1 that “Vladimir Putin thought that the Ukrainian population would welcome him as a liberator, but we saw that the troops involved were few in number”, adding that the enemy army “destroyed a certain number of fighter planes to reduce the air threat on [ses] own troops. However, “seeing that the population did not rise up to welcome it, we see these columns of vehicles which amass around the main cities. »
As for the Ukrainian resistance and its courage to face the invader, Christophe Gomart declared that the Russian president “succeeded in creating a Ukrainian nation and a patriotic spirit”, taking as examples the Ukrainians living abroad and who decided to return to their country to fight. For him, in addition to street fighting between the two countries, “the real danger is massive destruction as we saw at the time in Grozny or Mosul”.
But which of the Russians or the Ukrainians will let go first? Can Russia, as it is – with many material and human losses – continue its invasion, do the Russian soldiers want to continue? “The morale of the Russian troops does not seem to be at the highest level even if one must be careful with testimonies in times of war, because everyone tends to not tell the truth, to influence and misinform. Nevertheless, some Russian soldiers wonder what they are doing there”. Christophe Gomart also said that one of the reasons for this drop in confidence was due to the fact that “the Russians are seen as attackers, bad guys by this population. The Ukrainians and the Russians are very close peoples”, which makes the task much more difficult than it seemed for the Russian army.
Opposed to open war with Russia
The soldier also returned to the politicians and other commentators in favor of armed aid from European countries in Ukraine, attenuating their ardor in passing, he who has been deployed in many theaters of war: “War is is hard. A war is always atrocious. We know when it starts, but we never know when it ends […] Anything is possible in a war. Slippages are the lot of man “…
Although he said he was opposed to an open war with Russia, Christophe Gomart nevertheless declared that “Vladimir Putin will have succeeded in his fight against Ukraine in creating a tightening of the NATO countries, of a Europe which discovered that war continued to exist”. An example of a country in full mutation? “Germany, [laquelle] decided to send offensive weapons to the Ukrainians, something it had not done since the end of World War II. The former head of Special Operations cut short any idea of a European army to be built in the near future, declaring that “the European army exists: it’s NATO […] the Europeans will have to put in more money and the United States is very happy with that”. However, he pointed out a major weakness in this “European army”: “Europe is caught between two fires: on one side in the East with Russia, on the other the United States, each wanting prevent an economically strong Europe. »
The interview ended with a phrase sounding like a warning to Europeans: “The United States are our main allies (mobility, military aid), but economically they are adversaries. »
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