Russian analysts and pro-military commentators are overtly criticizing the nation’s newest Zapad 2025 navy workout routines, accusing the nation’s Ministry of Defense of staging unrealistic maneuvers that ignore hard-learned classes from the warfare in Ukraine.
Influential Telegram channel Voenny Osvedomitel, recognized for its ties to navy insiders and OSINT teams, condemned the workout routines as out of contact with trendy battlefield circumstances.
“Tu-22M3 and Su-34 bombers carried out strikes utilizing free-falling bombs from low altitude,” the channel reported, including that Russian paratroopers “loaded their BMD-2s into Il-76MD transport plane for parachute landings behind enemy traces.”
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“These aren’t workout routines,” the put up continued. “It’s one other circus act for the generals sitting on pedestals with binoculars.”
The backlash displays rising frustration amongst navy bloggers and analysts who say Russian generals are recycling techniques that failed in Ukraine. In early 2022, Russia’s preliminary assault on Hostomel Airport close to Kyiv featured an identical technique—airborne troops trying to grab a important web site unexpectedly and maintain it till reinforcements arrived.
That operation collapsed when Ukrainian forces countered with artillery, airstrikes, and floor resistance. Russian transport plane have been pressured to divert, and airborne items—with out correct help—needed to push by the Chernobyl Zone to rejoin primary forces. Ukrainian Su-24s and artillery items inflicted heavy losses, and Russian tactical aviation has since averted working inside 40 kilometers of Ukrainian air defenses.
Despite this, the Zapad 2025 drills seem to duplicate the identical assumptions about uncontested airspace and speedy airborne insertions.
Critics say the Ministry of Defense is extra targeted on visible spectacle than fight relevance. While Russian forces have tailored in some areas, such because the widespread use of glide bombs and drones, the choice to showcase conventional techniques has raised considerations amongst observers who concern that management stays insulated from front-line realities.
Russian navy management has not publicly responded to the criticism. However, official footage from Zapad 2025 highlighted synchronized troop deployments, low-level bombing runs, and parachute insertions—all offered as demonstrations of fight readiness and strategic flexibility.
