Russian State Media Hack Says Ukraine War is a ‘Rehearsal’ to ‘Test and Compare NATO Weapons With Our Own’

A Russian state media hack and purported expert on international policy told an audience in the country Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine might be a “rehearsal” for a larger conflict with the West.

Julia Davis, who monitors Russian state TV for the Daily Beast, shared a clip from a recent broadcast of the country’s version of 60 Minutes.

A man she identified as Alexei Fenenko, who she called a research fellow at the Moscow Institute of International Security Studies, shared an interesting theory.

Meanwhile on Russian state TV: Professor Alexei Fenenko, leading research fellow at the Institute of International Security Studies, says that for Russia, its war in Ukraine is a rehearsal for a potential larger conflict with NATO countries. pic.twitter.com/OSelLyltc5

— Julia Davis (@JuliaDavisNews) May 19, 2022

“For us, the war in Ukraine is a rehearsal for a possible bigger conflict in the future,” he said during an appearance on the program. “We’ll test and compare NATO weapons to our own. We’ll find out on the battlefield how much stronger our weapons are than theirs.”

Fenenko concluded Russia’s criminal war against Ukraine might be “a learning experience for our future conflicts.”

Host Olga Skabeyeva opined: “It’s a scary experiment.”

Russian forces have devastated Ukrainian cities, such as Mariupol, since the invasion began in February. But troops were unable to take the capital city of Kyiv.

If Putin is testing Russian military might against Ukraine as a rehearsal for a conflict with NATO, one could objectively conclude it is not going well.

Russian troops have been killed, captured, or surrendered in numbers which have challenged a pre-war notion Russia’s military was up to the task of fighting a conventional, modern war against a well-armed and determined foe.

There are also reports Russian troops, struggling with low morale, have sabotaged their own missions and equipment.

According to estimates claimed by the Ukrainian government, upwards of 20,000 Russian troops have been killed on its soil.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian forces have had considerable success picking off Russian generals and other high-ranking officers.

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