According to sources like the New Atlas and the Military Summary channel, Russia is NOT trying to take territory in this war. Russia’s aim is the destruction of the Ukrainian military. They are prepared to cede territory if it means more attrition on the Ukrainian side and less on theirs. This Western area of Kherson region was a massive liability in military terms, because had they kept it, Russia would have committed vast amounts of resources where they cannot easily be reinforced or withdrawn. The UAF knew that, which is why every one of their offensives was directed at pushing inside this area, and every one of its artillery maneuvers attempted the destruction of the dams and bridges connecting it to the mainland. Now that Russia has pulled out, it can shuffle its forces around much more easily, prevent unnecessary deaths on their side, and form bigger attacks on strategically advantageous positions in Donbas.
But Russia annexed Kherson Oblast along with Zaporizhia and Donbas
That’s why they evacuated civilians. The position would be incredibly costly to hold, they are winning the losses game, and sacrificing to hold Kherson would reverse their progress (which is to exhaust UA). They’ll look to retake it in December.
Scott Ritter says Russia evacuated because they think Ukraine is willing to blow up the dam to trap troops and civilians in the west bank. Ukraine is running out of troops and equipment, and Russia’s new 200k troops will be ready in December to defeat the UA.
So Ukraine’s defeat is coming in December?
The problem with wars is that you can begin them when you want, but no one can really predict when a war will end. Russia will gain numerical parity in december, Ukraine continually gets its infrastructure mauled and fewer and fewer weapons delivered. Everything else is in the open.
My biggest question is though, what happened to allow AFU to go on their, so far successful, counteroffensive? I initially heard it was all foreign mercenaries from pro-Russia sources and pro-West sources were telling me it was because of all the equipment they received from the West, but both of these were constant in the early days of the war when Russia was steamrolling everything in sight. Did Russia stretch their forces too thin or did the Ukrainians really come back swinging harder than expected?
Initially, the Ukranian army had a hige numerical advantage, we’re talking about having multiple times the numbers of the Russians. Even with the Donezk and Lughansk militias, the russian korps thus always was stretched thin. That’s what lead to that Ukraninan counter offensive. Russia basically bluffed that it had sufficiently fortified both locations that were attacked. Ukraine realized, that could not be the case, at least one would be virtually undefended. And threw thousands at both positions. In the one that actually was fortified, the Ukraninan soldiers were mowed down. In the other, the few russian soldiers pulled back under artillery cover, suffering only light casualties. Ukraine still lost around 4000 men there, but was able to reoccupy the area.
Their idea was right and they got their victory, but a very costly one.
Other commenter is correct, I’d add that I read from TASS that unfortunately Russian planners did not properly keep Ukraine occupied. Basically the Russians rolled up and set their lines up but didn’t try to harass the Ukranians too much. This let the Ukranians reform and of course resupply with NATO before launching this massive counter offensive.
From what I understand Russia knew a counter offensive was coming and that they were vulnerable due to lack of troops, but stood the line anyways because it was either that or retreat real early on in the conflict. A lot of NATARDs are taking this as a sign of weakness, and it is unfortunate Russia has been hampered so much. It’s still very early on in the war so Z boys “turning point” comment is a bit out there.
This war may drag on for years, unfortunately
There’s one interesting aspect of this that I haven’t seen anybody mention yet. Russia withdrew and allowed Ukraine to take west part of Kherson. Now, Ukraine is under pressure from their western sponsors to continue pressure. If Ukraine does end up pushing then they will be faced with well reinforced Russian positions.
It’s much costlier to do offensive than to play defence, and Russia may be forcing Ukraine into an offensive because politically it’s very difficult to stop now even though Ukraine hasn’t actually scored any military victories here.
Its getting far harder to control the land, especially with the growing problem of low manpower for ukraine. Russia is playing smart, but lets see if they can effectively play their hand.
Yeah, I think the next few months are going to be pivotal. Russians look to be preparing for Ukraine to throw all they got at them because this is the last shot that Ukraine has. It’s collapsing economically, and their western partners are entering economic collapse as well. The support is already drying up, and it’s not nearly enough to replenish what they’re losing. Once this offensive burns out then Ukraine is going to be left with nothing, and the west will implode. All Russia has to do is wait.
Watch the New Atlas’ video on this on Youtube
results of operation human shield get the behind the romanis… I never get too invested in details like this because you have two sources, Ukraine who wants to make you think russia is simultaneously an unstoppable evil overlord capable of conquering the whole world and a weak pathetic incompetent child. much like CIA propaganda against civil rights protestors, your enemy is both super capable of destroying the entire world order, and so incompetent it can’t even tie its own shoelaces.
The other source is russia itself who has no real motivations to tell us anything. The US has been at war with iraq for 20 years you’ve never seen battle footage like this, or constant updates on troop movements. So why are we being force fed this bullshit now?
They are using Romani?
ugh bad joke… no but there were widespread reports of pogroms and lynchings of minorities especially targeting the romani. The ukroanazis are very blatantly using human shields. Ukraine is basically kansas its just one giant flat cornfield. there’s no mountains, jungles, deserts, caves, or anything for them to hide in. So they hide in schools, hospitals, and crowded apartments. Then when the russians bomb them, they claim the russians were targeting civilians. Even have the wives and daughters of the azov battallion put on fake blood make up, torn clothing and pretend to be victims.
Okay wait a minute. If Russia is put in a position to target civilian infrastructure due to how nazis fight; you wont need make up covered women sobbing about the bloodshed.
It’s a war. There are all kinds of blood soaked women. No need to fake what you can easily find for propaganda.
So with the upmost respect. What are the reciepts about make up and faking?
The west are telling god damned lies. But Russia is still capable of telling lies.
There are lies and god damned lies… 🤷♂️
Russia has been trying its best to avoid civilian casualties. it could very easily just start carpet bombing the whole country like the US does everywhere else, take out water, electricity, main roads, They’re not even targeting the politicians, Saddam was hiding a hole in a basement remember? it would be very easy for russia to have turned everything in a 1/4 mile radius of Zelensky into ash at anytime. So the ukronazis have been dressing up as innocent victims of russian bombings and getting western propagandists to cover them. A famous one was a maternity hospital in Mariupol which had been empty for weeks and used as munitions depot and hideout by the Ukronazis. So they got their wives and girlfriends to dress up even put pillows under their shirts to pretend Russia just bombed a maternity hospital because it hates babies.
Yeah. I was aware that Russia was avoiding civilians. I just figured that hey… It’s a war. Even if Russia is super careful; youre gonna have casualties you didnt intend.
yeah propagandists like to pretend everything is brand new and their target invented violence itself, russia invented war, prisoners, the draft, civilian casualties, etc. One thing that shut them up about mariupol wasn’t the explanation of the reality, they dont care about that… theyre trained and experienced in dismissing whatever the truth is before you’re even done talking. So showing photos of these so-called victims at nazi rallies, or photographed a few days later perfectly fine screaming through a loudspeaker under a black sun flag. Or showing local reports made days before the bombing, about how these neonazis were kicking out pregnant women from the local maternity hospital while they were in labor so they could use it as a makeshift munitions depot and how storing all these weapons and bombs in a heavily residential area is dangerous, something the locals have learned to stop complaining about as they will either be shot or sentenced to life for being a russian spy.
None of that shut up the western propagandists, what did shut them up was reminding everyone on social media about the 2015 Kunduz hospital massacre where the USA killed 43 people (probably actually over 200) at a hospital in Afghanistan. the closest militants were over a mile away but the attack persisted for hours, not just a single bombing, but a relentless unprovoked attack, even as humanitarian workers and doctors pleaded with the US military to stop the assault telling them that there were no soldiers or armed men in the hospital, they continued their genocidal attack… once that made the rounds on tiktok, all of a sudden mariupol disappeared from the headlines
Anyone they can get really. The Ukrainian army deliberately set up positions next to operating schools, hid soldiers in kindergardens, set up firing positions in civilian housing and took hostages in at least on occasion.
Just wait, the winter is comming…
It will make logistics likely easier for all sides. It’s not really a one sided advantage
I wonder if a cold winter will dissuade NATO supplies?
Doubt it tbh. Even if European citizens suffers from the cold, their governments are quite deep into the NATO game. And should they try to pull out - there is no shortage of ways to “persuade” them
I thought Russia withdrew from Kherson because of what side of the river they were on, and that it was better to pull out (for now) because crossing the river would be harder to support
A corridor for grain and other resources to be shipped out of Ukraine and to Europe
I feel like this needs more context
Russia retreated from half of Kherson Oblast(dark blue part on the map) and almost completely left Mykolaiv Oblast.
