A DERRY councillor who helped train the Ukraine army fears it will be almost impossible to stop the Russian invasion of the country.
A former soldier, Ryan McCready was part of Operation Orbital which was a British-led project in 2015 and 2016 designed to modernise the Ukraine army. Now an Ulster Unionist councillor, Mr McCready said the Ukrainian forces were badly equipped and used military tactics years out of date.
The Ulster Unionist councillor, who has retained strong links with Ukraine, said the country was very badly equipped to deal with the power and ability of Russian military forces. Mr McCready said he had been in contact with friends in Ukraine since the invasion began and he felt it was difficult to see “anything other than a gloomy future”.
He told The Irish News: “The Russian forces have surrounded Kiev and that’s a precursor to taking the city. They (Russian soldiers) are also using Ukrainian army insignia to cause confusion and that goes against every convention and international law.
"Russia is also mounting cyber-attacks to disrupt communications and is disrupting WhattsApp and Facebook."
While the Russian military was highly trained and very professional and would not open fire indiscriminately, Mr McCready warned that it was impossible to avoid civilian casualties. He said the use of “airpower” in densely built-up urban areas made civilian deaths a certainty.
“They (the Ukrainian) people will fight to defend their country. They have heart and a fighting spirit and we’ve seen how passionate they are but I fear that they can only delay the completion of the invasion, and, at great cost,” he said.
Mr McCready said his friends and contacts in Ukraine were shocked that Russia had gone ahead with its invasion.
"It’s hard to understand because the two countries are so close. It’s like the US invading Canada; the Russians are fighting their cousins," he said.
The former soldier believed that the US decision to pull out of Afghanistan was taken as a sign of weakness by Vladimir Putin and may ultimately have been the reason why he decided to push ahead with his invasion now.
"It’s a real problem for NATO as these are nuclear powers and the wrong move could lead to a wider war. The invasion will take the Russian forces right up to the border with Poland (a NATO member) and any incursion then would spark Article 5 of the NATO Agreement, meaning all NATO members would have to come to Poland’s aid.”
Mr McCready believed that once he has taken complete control of Ukraine, President Putin will hold rigged elections to put a puppet-leadership loyal to Moscow in place.
