Ukraine beats Russian forces in withdrawal on the eastern and southern fronts

“Leaders of Ukraine’s armed forces in the south and east are getting into trouble in the Russian chain of command faster than the Russians can respond effectively,” said a Western official, who asked not to be named to share sensitive security information with reporters. This exacerbates the current imbalance within the Russian invasion force.

Ukraine was pressing to recover as much of its occupied territory as possible before Russia sent hundreds of thousands of reinforcements to the battlefield, following recent mobilization efforts.

The Ukrainian counterattack, which moved much more slowly to the south than the lightning thrust through the northeastern Kharkiv region in September, has suddenly accelerated, with Russian units retreating in recent days from a wide swath of territory along the western bank of the Dnieper.

Ukrainian troops pushed dozens of miles into the southern Kherson region, liberating towns and villages and recreating the scenes from mid-September when they overran Kharkiv and were greeted by the jubilant population who had spent many months under Russian occupation.

On Monday, a Russian Defense Ministry spokesman admitted that Ukrainian “superior tank units” were “caught deep in our line of defense” near the villages of Zolota Balka and Oleksandrivka in the Kherson region.

During the night, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that the Ukrainian 129th Brigade from his native city of Kryvyi Rih had liberated the settlements of Arkhanelsky and Mirolyubivka.

The restoration of control over the Kherson region, a rich agricultural region whose capital is an important port where the Dnieper River flows into the Black Sea, is critical for Ukraine. The capital was the first important city to be captured by Russia at the start of its invasion last February, and its loss would be a severe setback for Russia – strategically crippling the military and politically humiliating for Putin.

Kherson is the only Russian-held position west of the Dnieper River, and a possible strategic staging ground for Russia for any future offensive on the Black Sea coast towards the port city of Odessa.

Ukrainian officials had been promoting an operation to liberate Kherson for several months, which would lead to the withdrawal of Russian forces from Kharkiv and enable the Ukrainians to win victories in the northeast. But so far, Ukrainian forces have struggled in the south, suffering heavy losses but making little territorial progress.

Ukrainian forces refuted the annexation, and rushed from Lyman towards Luhansk

Ukraine’s gains in Kherson came after the recapture of the strategic Lyman transit center in eastern Donetsk over the weekend. Ukrainian forces cordoned off the city and killed some of the retreating Russian troops who collected their bodies on the roadsides. Then the Ukrainians rolled into Lyman apparently intent on extending their gains into Luhansk, the region where Russia maintained its strongest grip.

The collapse of the Russian position on the Lyman was notable because it occurred at a time when Putin was claiming that the city and the whole of Donetsk region, along with Luhansk, Kherson and Zarboyzhya, had been annexed and returned to Russia as part of its historical territory. But unlike Kharkiv where Moscow was ordered to withdraw, Russian forces were apparently called upon to defend Lyman.

“All the Russian forces withdrew in disrepair, and suffered great losses from artillery fire while trying to leave the town to the east,” said the western official of Lyman, likening it to Kharkov. “Then, as you remember, the troops received an order to cede the area,” the official said. “But in Lyman we believe that the Russian forces retreated despite orders to defend and stay”

“Giving up this area is exactly what the Kremlin didn’t want to happen,” the official said.

As a result, Russian control of the Luhansk region, which had been mostly unchallenged since June, was now in jeopardy.

The Institute for the Study of War (ISW), a Washington-based think tank, said the geo-referenced footage confirmed claims by Russian military figures that Ukrainian forces are continuing their advance east of Lyman, apparently preparing to fight over the town of Kremena. .

Videos released by the independent Russian company Astra show pro-Russian fighters from the self-proclaimed Luhansk People’s Republic camping in the open complaining that they were abandoned by Russian leaders during the withdrawal.

In the videos, a man in a Balinese costume said that the Russian losses in the area were huge, with only 193 and a few pieces of heavy equipment surviving from their initial convoy. The Washington Post was unable to independently verify the videos.

While Russia was retreating on the battlefield, the political theater of annexation continued in Moscow, with the Federation Council, the upper chamber of the Russian parliament, approving Putin’s annexation of the four Ukrainian regions.

Putin and other officials warned that Russia would feel entitled to defend its newly captured territory by all possible means, including, most likely, the use of nuclear weapons.

In two more elections, Russia’s parliament moves to ratify annexation

An annexation law is now being passed to the Kremlin for Putin’s final signature, which from Russia’s point of view will complete the process of seizing more than 15 percent of all Ukrainian sovereign territory. Putin is likely to sign on Tuesday, officials said, but what might follow is anyone’s guess.

On Monday, Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, acknowledged that he did not know the exact boundaries of the newly annexed territories, and said that Russian officials would continue to “consult” with local residents about the extent to which Russian control would extend to Kherson and Zaporizhia.

Putin’s brazen attempt to seize territory was met with overwhelming international condemnation. Even countries that traditionally maintain closer relations with Moscow, such as Turkey and Serbia, have united with the West in their refusal to recognize the results of the so-called referendums.

In what appeared to be a link to pariah states’ weapons, North Korea said it would recognize Russia’s new frontier. According to Russia’s state-run news agency, Pyongyang said on Tuesday that it supports “the position of the Russian government on making these areas part of the country.”

Putin now appears to be betting on an unpopular mobilization campaign that aims to summon hundreds of thousands of men to help take over the annexed areas.

Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu announced on Tuesday that more than 200,000 men were sent to the Russian armed forces in the two weeks since Putin’s announcement of mobilization on September 21.

Meanwhile, the interior minister of neighboring Kazakhstan, Marat Akhmedzhanov, said an equal number of Russians – 200,000 – had crossed the country’s borders since September 21, most apparently seeking to flee the crowd or out of fear that Putin would soon impose martial law and a travel ban. International. Tens of thousands of Russians fled to other neighboring countries, including Georgia and Finland.

The failed mobilization led to severe accusations in Russia with some rulers expressing anger at being called into service too old or otherwise unqualified.

while. Russian Defense Minister Shoigu attempted to respond to a torrent of recent reports on Russian social media from mobilized men and their family members complaining about a lack of proper equipment in military units, forcing some newly minted soldiers to go look for protective gear themselves.

“Officials were instructed to provide recruits with the necessary sets of clothing and other equipment,” Shoigu said, adding that 80 training grounds across Russia are now accepting newly mobilized soldiers.

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

But there were indications that Russia was not able to properly equip its recruits.

Prices for down jackets have risen dramatically in Russia over the past two weeks, with some stores raising prices more than tenfold, local media reported. In total, a soldier looking to purchase a full uniform suitable for combat in Ukraine would have to spend nearly $3,000 out of pocket, Baza News reported.

Ilyushina reports from Riga, Latvia. Khrushudian from Dnipro, Ukraine; and Rawhala from Brussels. Robyn Dixon and Natalia Abakumova in Riga contributed to this report.