Ukrainian soldiers detailed in comments to The Washington Post the steep toll that Ukraine was facing in its southern Kherson counteroffensive, an operation that the US reportedly helped Ukraine prepare.
Since launching the offensive at the end of August, Ukrainian officials haven’t offered much detail about the operation, and reporters are not allowed on the frontlines. But the Ukrainian soldiers, who spoke with the Post in a hospital, painted a grim picture of what the battle has been like for the Ukrainian side.
The Ukrainian soldiers said that they lacked the artillery needed to oust Russia’s forces from their positions. The soldiers said that they had to carefully ration their munitions, and when they did fire their weapons, they had trouble hitting their targets.
One platoon commander told the Post that Ukrainian forces “lost five people for every one they did.”
Ukraine has claimed some success in the offensive, but the claims cannot be verified. The soldiers interviewed by the Post that they were able to capture some villages that were previously controlled by Russia, but it’s not clear if Ukraine is capable of holding on to those positions.
This week, Ukraine launched another counteroffensive in eastern Ukraine in the Kharkiv region. According to the military analysis website Southfront, Ukraine has had some success in its attack on Russian positions near Kharkiv.
A report published by Southfront on Thursday said that the Kharkiv offensive has “been one of the major successes of the Ukrainian military on the front lines since the beginning of the Russian military operations in February.”
Russian media reported that fighting continued on Thursday night in the Kharkiv region and that Ukrainian shelling had intensified in the region in recent days.
This looks like the trench warfare in WWI. Draw your enemy into the open. Bomb and shoot the hell out of them. On and on. This nearly destroyed Western Europe. Is this some sort of revanchism on the part of the UK/US to do it again, but better? to somehow succeed at what was a fatal policy?
IF the Ukrainians were really having “success”, Zelensky would be dragging western correspondents down to see it. That he isn’t doing that tells me all I need to know; just a Potemkin Village/Kabuki theater, meant to “impress” his supporters and keep the money flowing, at the cost of Ukrainian lives and infrastructure.
If it was not true then the Russians would be more likely to take reporters to the settlements in the areas the Ukrainians claim to have taken back – as there would then be no danger in going there.
So if you “accept” THAT report, then you also accept that the Ukrainians are losing “5 for 1”, correct? The western press has continually discounted Russian claims, even when they have proved to be true; and grossly enhanced Ukrainian claims, even when provably false. So, no, I don’t agree with your assertion. The west has no interest in publishing possible russian success, only in trumpeting claimed Ukrainian “victories”. At BEST, Ukraine has retaken some villages which may (or may not) be “holdable”.
No I’m not saying that I trust that report, just that your argument that Zelenskyy would invite reporters to a hot conflict area was not exactly the best as the Russians could with no danger invite reporters there if they still held the areas and there was no threat.
Care to name a few actual cases, because while I can remember a lot of cases of overhyping Ukrainian feats I can’t remember a lot where the western press have discounted Russian claims that have then been proven true.
Would be kind of difficult as I did not make one.
I do not know if it has escaped you but the western sources have reported that the Russians have up until the very end of August practically only lost territory that they vacated i.e. that there has been but the Dunkirk like successes to report – while they have reported pretty faithfully every new town or village that the Ukrainians had lost.
Believe what you want; as will I.
If Ukraine does in fact retake Kherson, i would love to read your reaction as you have presented multiple analysis denying this possibility over the last few weeks.
And I continue to deny it. I don’t believe it’s possible; and events so far prove that correct. Certainly, the quotes from the unnamed Ukrainian soldier in this article suggest that the “counteroffensive by fire” (whatever the hell that’s supposed to mean) is going nowhere.
But note there is a difference between “Kherson city”, which has no strategic value, just propaganda value and comes with several hundred thousand hungry civilian mouths to feed, and “Kherson Oblast”, which has immense strategic value as a shield and buffer to Crimea. Russia has no intention of giving up either, but if I were in charge I would happily evacuate the city, blow every single bridge (something the Ukrainians and “HIMARS-HIMARS-HIMARS” have been unable to accomplish) and leave the Ukrainians to rot on the north bank. And you could call that a “victory” if it makes you happy.
The Western M.S.M would just say it is Russian propaganda , remember all Russian news out lets to the West have been shut down , the last thing the US / UK want is the truth to be shown.
Yes as much of it has indeed proven to be – or are we to believe that Putin wanted a years long war in Ukraine? More to the point this would serve to tell the Russians that the stories told in some western outlets were obviously false.
Russian media is no longer housed on western servers you can still access telegram and AFAIK nearly any Russian channel you want – so not really the kind of blackout you imply.
True, you can also access with as wellRSS. Though Telegram and RSS only applies to written articles not tv personalities hosting the RT programs (which I think is still on-going), which is now impossible to find, at least for me.
Majority of people rather watch videos than read articles, and in this sense it is a media blackout. Not to mention they have limited or restricted presence now on social media unless you make an effort to actually follow them.
I can watch any Russian web channel I please – so there is no censorship of Russian media, there is a refusal to publish their stories in our media (and host them on our web sites).
That is the simple point – just like Trump was not denied freedom of speech by losing access to Twitter or Facebook – these are just not the same.
Ukraine is doing very poorly in the Kherson region. But their gains in the Kharkiv region have been impressive. The orange areas of map posted here is a good representation of what happened near Kharkiv.
That said, Russia seems to have been caught off guard. It’s too early to know how this will play out.
Agreed; we need to wait and see. Kharkiv has always been out of Russia’s reach; there is no way the 20,000 or so troops in the Russian sector could ever possibly take and hold a city of over 1 million people. Kherson is a very different story; Kherson Oblast (much more than the city itself) is key as a shield to Crimea, and extremely important to Russia. So that fighting is far more significant – and, based on Ukrainian propaganda, was supposed to have been “retaken” by the end of last month.
Impressive? Please show it on the map? Name vilages taken? Let media go there and interview happy liberated Ukrainians? And if they did, populace would be gone. They will need to bring actors from Zelenski show company to stage something. To drop my cynicism promptly — let us say we need to see something beyond wounded in hospitals.
Dire Straits – Money For Nothing seems tailor made
for and about Zelensky! Living on and banking American and EU cash
while prancing around the world on videos Zelensky is having the time of
his life at the expense of Ukrainian lives.
So the vaunted counter offensive is underway and it
is not looking good for Ukraine. Prodded and pushed by UK Prime
Minister Boris Johnson who visited Zelensky in Kiev two weeks ago;
Ukraine opened attacks along the front lines in Southeastern Ukraine.
As Zelensky sits in his bunker doing photo shoots
for women’s fashion magazines Ukrainians are being killed at a ferocious
rate. Ukrainian troops are in Dire Straits!
On Monday Zelensky rang the bell to open trading on the New York Stock Exchange. At the same time the bell was tolling for the Ukrainian army. Estimates are that for every Russian soldier KIA between 5 to 10 Ukrainian draftees are KIA.
The following article speaks of the misery foisted
upon Ukrainian troops by a criminal corrupt regime who is milking
America and the west for every cent they can get their greedy blood
stained hands on.
News crews are banned by Zelensky from reporting from the front lines, but the following article is quite telling.
American and the EU politicians should be ashamed of their enabling of the tyrannical government in Kiev!
I doubt Mark Knopfler would agree, considering he’s supporting the British Red Cross and its Ukrainian aid appeal.
Doesn’t matter if Knopfler agrees. The lyrics fit.
Infantry win wars not artillery , missiles ect ect Putin knows this if he knows the history of the Battle for Stalingrad , Zelensky dosen`t have the man power but that won`t stop the US war mongers from SACRIFICING every Ukraine Soldier in their proxy war with Russia.
Russian military (especially their leadership) will only strengthen with sustained combat experience. It’s how USA got to where they are. They fight, they learn and they improve in all areas from tactics to communications to leadership. Vietnam 10 years sustained combat. Middle East 20 years sustained combat. In WWII Russia started off as a complete embarrassment then went on to defeat Hitler and became a rival to the US and all of Western Europe. Russia hasn’t had any real sustained combat for some time until now. I wonder if Putin not fully mobilizing his military is by design based on what I just mentioned
“…No reporters allowed on the front line…” (This)* War requires censorship. Repeat it, believe it. But, don’t accept it.
No reporters, indeed, they might contradict the official propaganda.
If the offensive was even a little bit effective the warmongers and their compliant media would have it plastered on front pages.
So if it turns out to be ‘effective’ would you consider the notion that our media might not be compliant or that there are few warmongers involved in this?
that premise or hypothetical is at the moment breaking it’s back trying to support itself.
You are aware that the Ukrainians have taken Izium, Kubiansk and all the territory between these two cities west of the Oskil? I’d say that it is pretty much a fact that the offensive was very effective if in no other way then by drawing Russian forces away from where they were going to be needed.
And if he is right, would you consider admitting that our media is stenographers for the war party (plagiarized from Raimondo) and the warmongers are indeed plentiful? Or will you continue to be the contrarian asshole that asks stupid hypothetical questions?
In Operation Pyrrhic Victory All sides lose, some lose more than others. Ukraine’s big offensive is “winning” but only in the sense that it’s going to cost Russia more men and money, but the same can be said for Ukraine and then some. But what matters more to the West, the number of dead Ukrainians or giving Russia a black eye and making any victory a Pyrrhic one for Russia?
In Kharkiv the Ukrainians took a lot of territory back, most of which wasn’t heavily defended and they bypassed a number of cities which were heavily defended. This is a difficult situation for both sides but it’s likely that Ukraine bit off more than it can chew and has moved too quickly, taken too much ground and left too many enemies on their flanks and even within their own areas of operation. It could go very badly for Russia if these men in the cities are cut off and Ukraine is able to hold this 1,000 square kilometer area, it will go very badly for Ukraine if they can’t.
Russia is moving in reinforcements to Kharkiv right now, it’s not that far or that hard for them to do it, the question is whether or not they will be able to get their artillery and ammo in place soon enough to save the Russian troops trapped in these cities. I’m guessing their air forces will be working overtime keeping Ukrainians pinned down while the Artillery moves in to either force a retreat or open paths for retreating Russians from the cities.
Either way, the Russians are actually more worried about holding onto the area near Kherson and don’t want to lose their bridgehead, especially not with the bridges blown. So far that part of the Ukraine offensive isn’t going that well for them and that’s not a surprise. The Russians had moved in enough troops themselves that they had the numbers that are normally needed per mile to go on the offensive.
Apparently they didn’t reinforce the troops around Kharkiv and instead told them to retreat, blow up specific bridges and inflict as many casualties as they could before getting out. None of these troops in the Kharkiv area were Russians main military, they were either DPR or reservists, those kind of soldiers. There were never going to be asked to fight against large groups of Mechanized infantry, which believe it or not, everyone knew was massing in this area. This didn’t come as a surprise to Russia, no matter what anyone is reporting. Military Summary Channel was showing the large number of Mechanized infantry forces in this area for at least two weeks now and he was predicting this part of the offensive based on that info. If he knew it was coming you can bet the Russians did as well. Their plan to defend Kharkiv however, is either falling apart or hasn’t come together yet, take your pick. Honestly it’s too soon to tell and the difference in the long run is whether or not Russia needs to do a full mobilization or not.
The key fact is that the Ukrainians are still fighting and the Russians have no way to leave Ukraine in the foreseeable future. The “Russians are caught in a classic negative feedback loop that destroys imperialist invaders. . The harder the Russians fight, the deeper the Ukrainian nationalist resentment of Russian imperialism grows. Eventually the Russians will have to leave in defeat and Ukrainians will settle their future among themselves. The only question is how long it will take the Russians to realize they can’t win in Ukraine. It took the US 20 years in Afghanistan. The invasion was a terrible blunder by Putin. He played right into NATO’s hands.
If the Russian goal was to capture parts of Ukraine where the people living there hated Russians then OK, maybe. But they aren’t threatening to take land that belongs to people who want to be part of Ukraine. This civil war was going on for Eight Year and Ukrainian nationalism couldn’t kick a ragtag bunch of separatists out of the country. Without US support the war is over and the US is one of the worst fair weather friends you can ask for, 20 year losses are our specialty.
Everyone seems to think Russia is losing because the war isn’t going according the time line set by propagandists. Take one look at the map and the hundreds of miles of Trenches that cover all of the Donbass and you will see why Putin, nor his Generals ever promised a quick end. Furthermore, they didn’t fully mobilize which they would have done if speed was their goal.
Many people seem to forget that the Ukrainians are fighting their fellow Ukrainians not just Russia or they act as if that’s not a factor. Many of the Ukrainians are further from home than the fighters fighting for Russia and they are fighting for their own nationalism.
Interesting to note that the ‘Russians’ who live in the Ukraine territory that Putin has occupied since February haven’t exactly been welcoming their ‘brothers’ with open arms. A googly portion are fighting to kick the Russian army out.
Over 60% of the people in the Donbass are ethnic Ukrainians as of the last census. And the people in the territories being liberated by the Ukrainians seem genuinely happy now that the Russians are being kicked out.
Crimea is the only part of Ukraine where Russian separatists would probably win a fair plebiscite.
“In Kharkiv the Ukrainians took a lot of territory back, most of which wasn’t heavily defended and they bypassed a number of cities which were heavily defended.”
Wait … the Russians are “heavily defending” cities? When the Ukrainians do that the orchestra in this comment section tunes up for the operatic production of “THEY’RE USING HUMAN SHIELDS!”
You Russians as well as your Useful Idiot supporters are hilarious. We’re
going on 7 months of war, Russia has lost over 100 thousand combined
dead and wounded, the country’s economy is in the crapper, the whole
free world hates Russia, and you still think you’re WINNING the war!
Every day that the Ukrainians remain in charge of a free government and a
military force that is killing Russians is a WIN FOR UKRAINE.
Russia has completely embarrassed itself, it’s military and it’s people; from
now on in the West when people encounter Russians they will think there
goes a war criminal, a rapist or a supporter of war criminals. You are now crying that you are fighting all of NATO, not just the Ukrainians and making up pathetic lies that there’s actual Americans and NATO units fighting in Ukraine because you just can’t believe that the Ukrainians are better fighters than you. You completely underestimated how people would fight to defend their own land.
So you cry and you lie about NATO and NAZIS but everyone knows the truth because Putin himself admitted it. Comparing himself to Peter the Great he admitted that he was just trying to take back what he considers Russian lands. Finally the truth came out yet you fools keep spewing the NATO & Nazi crap every day even though the free world pretty much laughs at you. Ukrainians have resisted RUSSIFICATION for over 300 years and they will never surrender
to become “good Russians” like the Chechens, Buryats, Yakuts and all the
other nations Russia has crushed and RUSSIFIED over the past 300 years.
They are Ukrainians, not Russians. They don’t want to be Russians as they have made clear for hundreds of years. Ukrainian National poet Taras Shevchenko told them that 200 years ago and got sent to Siberia for doing so. All these years later nothing has changed. Well not quite; something HAS changed: the Ukrainians are fighting back and killing Russians and that will continue until Russia gets out of Ukraine.
The Russians are losing the war. At this point none of us can know with certainty the number of Russian or Ukrainian casualties in the current fighting. Russia may be winning the battles but Russia is losing the war. Russia is losing because seven months after the invasion Ukrainians are still fighting back.
I always expected the Ukrainian national resistance movement to eventually defeat the Russian invasion. But I am amazed that the Ukrainian military survived as an effective fighting force more than a few weeks after the invasion.
What we know beyond a shadow of doubt is that the Ukrainian army is still fighting seven months after the Russians invaded. The Russians have been unable to decisively defeat the Ukrainian military in an asymmetric war that the Russians are losing. It doesn’t matter how many battles the Russians may win or how many casualties they inflict on the Ukrainian military or Ukrainian citizens. The Russians have failed to pacify any region of the Ukraine, even Crimea.
Strategic victory for Russia requires decisively defeating the Ukrainian regular military and the Ukrainian resistance. Victory for Russia requires conquest and pacification of the Donbas and a land bridge between Donbas and Crimea while maintaining control over Crimea. Victory for Russia mean being able to withdraw from Ukraine. Victory is beyond Russia’s reach at this time.
Victory for Ukraine means maintaining the ability to fight. In an asymmetric war of national resistance the invading power needs to defeat the opposition military and the resistance, pacify the conquered territory and withdraw. The national resistance movement needs to maintain the ability to resist.
Asymmetric wars of national resistance like Vietnam, Ukraine or Afghanistan are decided by hearts and minds, not tactical supremacy on the
battlefield. In Vietnam and Afghanistan the US won every battle but lost the wars because the invading forces could not pacify the conquered territory and withdraw.
Putin should have learned from history. But he did not. The Russian invasion is an abject failure because the Ukrainians are still fighting.
In the long run the Russians will have to withdraw unless they can break the will of the Ukrainian people to resist.
For over 60 years I have watched imperialist warmongers repeat the same mistake of underestimating the power of a national resistance movement to defeat a superior military force. I honestly thought that Putin would avoid the mistakes of his Soviet predecessors or the US/NATO imperialists. But he did not because Putin is a Russian chauvinist who doesn’t believe in the reality of Ukrainian nationalism or understand Ukrainian national identity and resolve which the Russian invasion has strengthened.
We may never know who is taking the heaviest casualties in the current Ukrainian offensive. But the fact that the Ukrainians are still fighting back and the Russians can’t pacify and withdraw from Ukraine in the foreseeable future means the Russians are being defeated.
“But I am amazed that the Ukrainian military survived as an effective fighting force more than a few weeks after the invasion.”
And you can’t figure out why? I could give you billion$ of reasons.
There were even more billions of reasons why the US with its Kabul allies should have defeated the Taliban or that the ARVN should have defeated the North Vietnamese.
The truth is that the Taliban, the Vietnames communists and the Ukrainian resistance are bona fide national resistance movements.
It is hearts and minds, not money and materiel that determine the outcomes of national resistance wars.
Billions weren’t provided to the Taliban or the NV. If they were, you could make that comparison. You’d have to turn back the clock and have those billions removed from the equation to have any idea what resistance Ukraine would have put up.
If by “NV” you mean the North Vietnamese, aka the People’s Army of Viet Nam, yes, the Soviet Union provided “billions” in aid. Tens of billions of dollars’ worth [in 2022 dollars] of aircraft, artillery, air defense systems, small arms, munitions, etc.
Thank you for the correction. There is still no way of knowing what kind of resistance Ukraine would have put up without the billions supplied by the US/NATO.
Wars, my pockets are in pain 😭
Anybody using phrase like “Ukrainian resistance” clearly has no knowledge of Ukraine. And because if that, very likely to see the whole pucture in distorted light,
I am not presuming to enlighten anyone, as data is still available (albeit already a bit cleansed) on Ukraine, its population ehnic, linguistic and religious make up. It will be easier to understand why Russian operations are targeted and designed to minimuze the impoact in the population that identifies as Russian. And tgese go well beyind ethnic Russians but unclude most Christian Orthodox Ukrainians, Greeks, Romanians, Georgians, Moldivsns etc. and as Tatars in Crimea fared so much better than those in Ukraine, there is a wholesale shift in the outliok if Moslem population of Ukraine.
Russia has two problems. Russian sympathizing regions still under Ukrainian control are scared. Disapearances, arrests for spying, job loses, And areas that are under Russian control — they immediatelly lose access to bank accounts, retirement payments, health care workers salaries, no payments to schools, cut off electricty and water if they could and mirriad of businesses blocked. Russia has thousands if volunteers or Russian companies step in to restore banking, telecom, water and electric, health care, retiremement and salaries lost replaced by urgent welfare system. That has to
be paiid in rubles.
There is a deliberate slowing down of operations. As Russia degraded Ukrainian military sugnificantly — it now remains to be seen what can Western training and war planning do to change Ukrainian prospects. Just like in Donbas where Ukraine sent waves after waves of military, just to be mowed down without Russia having to move much — this will be another test of NATO planning for this war, Let is not forget the failure of that planning in the oleningvweeks of Russian intervention. Whle bellygazing over Kiev, Russia took Kherson, goid part of Zaporozhie, nuclear power plant and the entire — repeat — ENTIRE AZOV SEA COAST.
NATO planners are yet to reciver from that fiasco.
So now, round two. Russia knows this is a long haul — this is conflict with US and NATIO, with Ukraine being a pawn. Thus whatever tveir thinking now — it has everything to do with this in mind. And with mind in Miiddle East, Iran, India and China.
Watch the upcoming SCO meeting in
Samarkand this month. Ine will not need many words to get the meaning. Russia has a much larger definition of this war.
So in year one of our invasion of Afghanistan we should have pulled American forces out because the goat herders were still fighting back and that equated to our loss?
Eventually the “goat herders” won in Afghanistan. The US never had a chance against the Taliban.
Exactly. However the then-Soviets saw the handwriting on wall far earlier when we armed the then-freedom fighters who mysteriously turned to “terrorists” when defending their nation against us.
Were the Soviets more prescient thant the Americans because they got their asses kicked for ten years before they quit and the US hung on for 20? Hubris is a quality for leadership in nation states. The double alpha males and the very few female wannabe double alphas who have led imperial states are fixated with what they believe is the power of overwhelming military force. The double alpha mentality simply can’t comprehend how a downtrodden population can defeat an advanced military force. That is why double alphas like Putin repeat the same mistakes made by LBJ, Brezhnev, Bush and Blair.
Putin is doubly blind because centuries of Russian chauvinism left him incapable of comprehending that Ukrainian nationalism is a powerful force that was engendered by Russian domination over Ukraine for centuries.
I don’t like the Taliban or the mujahideen who preceded them. But the fundamentalists had the support of the Afghani people. The US and Soviet puppets did not have popular support and they lost.
I oppose NATO and its aggression against Russia. But I am also aware of the 750 year history of Russian imperialism that birthed Ukrainian nationalism. A Russian invasion of Ukraine cannot accomplish anything except unite Ukrainians against their historic oppressor. It would be like the British invading Ireland . A losing proposition.
.
How come the Ukrainians closest to Russia in the Donbas and Crimea want to become part of Russia, if what you say is true? Maybe the Ukraine should give their chunk of Poland back to them, and Poland can return the chunk of Germany they have?
What makes you think the Ukrainians in the Donbass want to be part of Russia? The people in the territories recently liberated by the Ukrainians seem genuinely joyous now that the Russians are being kicked out. The Donbass rebellion was spearheaded by Putin’s “men in black” who infiltrated the region in 2014. In the last census over 60% ofthepeople on the Donbass were ethnic Ukrainians and many of the ethnic Russians oppose Putin’s invasion.
And if the US thought that Afghanistan was an existential threat and not a 20-year feeding frenzy for the MIC, Afghanistan would now be a parking lot.
An offensive can gain ground. It always brings the attackers out into the open, exposing them to the defenders’ fire. That is why WW1 trench warfare worked the way it did.
Whatever the minor gains might be, the big result is the same as what the Germans did to the French offensives, and the Entente did to the German 1918 offensive.
The French army very nearly dissolved in 1917, and the German Army did dissolve in 1918. That is the future for the Ukraine Army. That is how this war will end, how Ukraine’s defeat will look. It will be a sudden sweeping away of the regime and its army, much like Afghanistan and South Vietnam.
Wait, weren’t they winning and even pushed them back to the Russian border lmao. What happened to the ghost of Kiev fella and the other stuff…
Oh was all propaganda from Kiev and was disproven quickly by Russian docs/accounts and later west media said it was so.
Russia left an area that they never managed to move on from, as the geography was bad for a further offense. They knew the attack was coming and they executed a perfect withdrawal with very few casualties, no troops surrounded. If you stand on a bridge and you come under fire, you either take the other side or you pull back to your side, you don’t stay on the bridge. Now Ukraine’s forward troops has long support lines over six bridges that Russia can destroy.
These troops are their best, trained by Britain and other countries. While the 4,000 they let die in Kherson were of the lower class of troops, those they sacrifice every day. They force people to fight to force Russia to an artillery exchange, where the Ukrainian conscripts are ripped apart – simply to slow down Russia. I wonder how they decide which conscripts to put in which group in this two-tier system. Probably the upper tier are only Ukraine speakers and definitely those connected to the ruling factions, not Russian-speaking rabble.