Ukraine Strikes Russian Troops Retreat on Eastern and Southern Fronts

“Commanders of the armed forces in southern and eastern Ukraine are raising questions with the Russian chain of command faster than the Russians can respond effectively,” a Western official told reporters on the condition of anonymity with sensitive security information. “This exacerbates the existing dysfunction of the Russian invasion force.”

After the latest mobilization, Ukraine has been trying to reclaim as much of its occupied territory as possible, and then Russia could send hundreds of thousands of reinforcements to the battlefield.

The Ukrainian counteroffensive was moving far more slowly in the south compared to the lightning advance in the northeastern part of Kharkov in September, but it has suddenly picked up speed, with Russian forces withdrawing from large swathes of territory along the West Bank in recent days. Dnieper River.

The Ukrainian army pushed dozens of miles into the southern Kherson region, liberating towns and villages and recreating scenes from when Kharkiv swept through mid-September, with happy residents who had spent months under Russian occupation Welcome.

On Monday, a spokesman for the Russian Defense Ministry acknowledged that Ukrainian “senior tank units” were “deep in our defenses” near the villages of Zolota Balka and Oleksandrivka in the Kherson region.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said overnight that the Ukrainian 129th Brigade had liberated the settlements of Arkhanhelske and Myrolyubivka from his hometown of Kryvyi Rih.

Regain control of the Kherson region, a wealthy agricultural region whose capital is an important port where the Dnieper flows into the Black Sea, vital to Ukraine. Losing the capital, the first major city Russia occupied at the start of last February’s invasion, would be a serious setback for Russia – a major setback for the military – strategically wreaking havoc on the military and politically a disgrace for Putin .

Kherson is the only Russian stronghold west of the Dnieper and a potential strategic springboard for future Russian offensives on the Black Sea coast to the famous port city of Odessa.

For months, Ukrainian officials have touted the liberation of Kherson, which could pull Russian troops out of Kharkiv and give Ukraine a victory in the northeast. But until now, Ukrainian forces have struggled in the south with heavy casualties and little territorial progress.

Ukrainian army rejects annexation, advances from Lehman to Luhansk

Ukraine was victorious in Kherson after taking back Lehman, a strategic transport hub in eastern Donetsk over the weekend. Ukrainian troops surrounded the city, killing some of the retreating Russian troops, whose bodies were collected by the roadside. The Ukrainians then broke through Lehman, apparently intending to extend their gains to Luhansk, the region where Russia maintains the strongest hold.

The collapse of Russia’s position in Lehman is notable because it occurred when Putin claimed that all areas of the city and the Donetsk region, along with Luhansk, Kherson and Zapozhia, were annexed as Part of its historic land is returned to Russia. But unlike Kharkiv, where Moscow ordered a retreat, Russian troops were apparently told to defend Lehman.

“All the Russian troops retreated in an orderly manner, with heavy casualties from artillery fire as they tried to leave the town and head east,” the Western official said of Lehman, who compared Lehman to Kharkiv. “Then, as you recall, the troops received orders to cede territory,” the official said. “But in Lehman, we think that the Russian army retreated despite the orders to defend and stay”

“Abandoning this area is exactly what the Kremlin doesn’t want to happen,” the official said.

As a result, Russian control of the Luhansk region, largely undisputed since June, is now in jeopardy.

The Washington-based think tank Institute for War Studies (ISW) said the geolocation footage confirmed Russian military sources’ claims that Ukrainian forces were continuing to push east of Lehman, apparently in preparation for a battle for the town of Crimena. .

Video released by independent Russian media Astra showed pro-Russian fighters from the self-proclaimed Luhansk People’s Republic camping in the open and complaining that Russian commanders abandoned them as they retreated.

In the video, a man in tattered overalls said Russia’s losses in the region were huge, with only 193 survivors and a few pieces of heavy equipment remaining in their initial convoy. The Washington Post was unable to independently verify the video clips.

As Russia retreated from the battlefield, the political arena of annexation continued in Moscow, where the Federation Council, the upper house of Russia’s parliament, rubber-stamped Putin’s annexation of four regions of Ukraine.

Putin and other officials have warned that Russia will feel entitled to defend its newly occupied territories by all possible means, including the possible use of nuclear weapons.

In two other staged votes, Russia’s parliament begins to approve annexation

The annexation legislation is now handed back to the Kremlin for Putin’s eventual signature, which, from Russia’s perspective, would complete the process of seizing more than 15 percent of all sovereign territory in Ukraine. Officials said Putin could sign it on Tuesday, but what happened next could be anyone’s guess.

On Monday, Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, admitted that he did not know the exact boundaries of the newly annexed territories and said Russian officials would continue to “consult” with the local population on Russia’s response to Kherson and Zaporozhye. Control range.

Putin’s reckless attempt to plunder land has been strongly condemned by the international community. Even countries that have traditionally maintained closer ties to Moscow, such as Turkey and Serbia, have aligned themselves with the West, refusing to recognize the so-called referendum result.

In what appears to be a pariah state’s arms ties, North Korea says it will recognize Russia’s new borders. Pyongyang said on Tuesday that it supported “the Russian government’s position to incorporate these areas into the country,” according to Russia’s state news agency TASS.

Putin is now apparently betting on an unpopular mobilization campaign aimed at rallying hundreds of thousands of people to help gain a foothold in annexed regions.

On Tuesday, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu announced that in the two weeks since Putin announced his mobilization on September 9, more than 200,000 people have been sent to the Russian armed forces. twenty one.

Meanwhile, the interior minister of neighbouring Kazakhstan, Marat Akhmetzhanov, said the same number of Russians (200,000) had crossed the country’s borders since last September. On the 21st, most apparently wanted to flee the mobilization or fear that Putin will soon impose martial law and ban international travel. Tens of thousands of Russians fled to other neighboring countries, including Georgia and Finland.

The botched mobilization has drawn harsh criticism in Russia, with some governors expressing anger at people who are too old or unqualified being called up by mistake.

at the same time. Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu sought to respond to a recent flood of reports on Russian social media from mobilizers and their families complaining that military units lack proper equipment, forcing some newly recruited soldiers to find protective gear on their own.

“Officials have been instructed to provide mobilized personnel with the necessary clothing and other equipment,” Shoigu said, adding that 80 training grounds across Russia are now receiving newly mobilized soldiers.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/10/03/marina-ovsyannikova-russia-house-arrest-ukraine/

But there are signs that Russia is failing to properly equip its recruits.

Prices of Russian bulletproof vests have risen sharply in the past two weeks, with some stores raising prices more than tenfold, local media reported. According to the Baza news outlet, a soldier wants to buy a full uniform suitable for fighting in Ukraine, which will cost a total of about $3,000.

Ilyushina reported from Riga, Latvia; Khrushudyan from Dnipro, Ukraine; and Rauhala from Brussels. Robyn Dixon and Natalia Abbakumova in Riga contributed to this report.