According to Ukrainian and Western military analysts, Russia is sending newly enlisted conscripts with little training to the front lines in eastern Ukraine, while at the same time launching fierce but ineffective attacks and suffered heavy casualties.
Terrifying videos of Russian infantrymen in poorly prepared positions being bombarded by shelling partly support those claims, as reported in Russian media of mobilized soldiers telling people. about the high casualty rate. The videos were shot by Ukrainian drones, which have not been independently verified and their exact location cannot be determined.
Russian President Vladimir V. Putin on Friday announced that the draft he ordered on September 21 a chaotic attempt wiped out a number of men who should have been exempt, added 318,000 troops to the Russian army, 49,000 of whom went to war. But he did not acknowledge widespread complaints about inadequate training and equipment, with several soldiers killed within days of deployment.
Recently, attention has turned to the southern front, where Ukrainian forces are gradually closed in the Russian-administered city of Khersonbut the Kremlin is also pouring more troops into the eastern Donbas region, trying to stem Ukraine’s recent advances while rebuilding ground forces that have been ravaged by more than eight months of war.
General Valeriy Zaluzhnyi, the commander of the Ukrainian army, said in a statement posted on the messaging app Telegram on Thursday that Russian forces have tripled the intensity of attacks along several areas of the front. and perform up to 80 attacks per day. He did not specify a time frame or where the attacks occurred, nor did he say how large they were; some may be small attacks, probing, looking for weaknesses in Ukraine’s defenses.
General Zaluzhnyi said that in a phone call he told General Christopher G. Cavoli of the United States, supreme commander of the Allies in Europe, that “thanks to the courage and skill of our warriors” me,” the Ukrainians fought back against the attacks.
A review published on Thursday by Institute for War Studies, an analyst group based in Washington, agrees that Russia has not taken a position in the Donbas. Instead, Moscow’s forces “wasted the newly mobilized supply of manpower for small profit” by attacking before they had enough troops to ensure success.
“Russian forces are likely to be more successful in such offensive operations if they wait until enough servicemen are mobilized to accumulate a force large enough to break through the defenses,” the institute said. Ukraine’s defenders”.
Russian attacks have targeted several towns and villages, including Bakhmut and Avdiivka. All civilians have been evacuated from a frontline town, Marinka, on the outskirts of Donetsk, the Ukrainian National Police said. At the same time, the Ukrainian military said it was able to cut off Russia’s use of a key supply route to its forces in the town of Kreminna, threatening Russia’s ability to hold it.
The extent of Russian losses on the ground is uncertain – as is the number of Ukrainian casualties. The Institute for the Study of War said Russia had “stabbed” its poorly prepared units into Ukraine’s pre-dug defensive positions. Ukrainian military estimates of Russian casualties, which are widely considered overblown, have risen sharply; on Friday, the military said more than 800 Russian soldiers had been injured or killed in the previous 24 hours.
In Kherson, the Russian occupation authorities that had controlled the city since February withdrew from the city largely after looting the city’s resources, and several military units also withdrew, rallying on the opposite side, the east bank of the Dnipro River. However, Ukrainian military intelligence says that Russia has deployed about 40,000 troops to the west bank to prevent Ukrainian troops from retaking the city.
Russian officials have ordered civilians to be removed from Kherson, but the number has yet to be determined, and Kirill Stremousov, a top Russian proxies for the region, thinks those who remain behind their fellow countrymen. Ukraine will face prosecution. Analysts say Russian authorities fear that, in the battle for control of the city, locals could provide vital intelligence to Ukrainian forces.
Speaking in Moscow on Friday, Mr Putin said the city must be evacuated, citing his comments as concerns for the safety of the people, even though his forces have killed many civilians. in attacks across Ukraine.
“Those living in Kherson must now be removed from the area of the most dangerous acts of hostilities,” he said in a speech on state television. “Civilians should not be subjected to shelling, from attacks, counter-attacks and other measures related to military operations.”
He is marking Unity Day, a national holiday commemorating an uprising that expelled the Polish-Lithuanian occupiers from Moscow in 1612. The holiday was celebrated before the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917 and was celebrated Mr. Putin resurrected in 2005, who recognizes it every year by placing flowers. at a statue in Red Square erected to honor the leaders of the uprising.
Symbolism goes hand in hand with his justification for invading Ukraine – that Russia is fighting to survive against invaders from the West.
The Pentagon on Friday announced that the United States is sending an additional $400 million in military aid to Ukraine, bringing the total since the Russian invasion on February 24 to $18.9 billion. . The latest package includes half the cost of overhauling 90 T-72B tanks supplied by the Czech Republic, with the Netherlands paying the other half.
It also includes 1,100 Phoenix Ghost explosive drones, 40 armored patrol boats, and funding to upgrade light armored vehicles and air defense systems.
The Defense Department said it was also creating a new 300-man commanding officer based in Germany specifically to oversee how the United States and its allies train and equip Ukraine’s military, signaling a long-term commitment. long. It replaces a system used in warfare under a pre-existing command.
Some Republican lawmakers have questioned the continuation of heavy spending on Ukraine’s defense. However, President Biden’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, has assured Ukrainians nervously watching the US midterm elections that American support will not decline, regardless of the outcome of the vote.
“I am confident that the US support for Ukraine will be firm and unwavering,” Mr. Sullivan said at a news conference in Kyiv, where he met President Volodymyr Zelensky and other top officials. of Ukraine.
“Under any scenario, the president is committed to working on a bipartisan basis” to ensure that Ukraine’s military will not be short of weapons, Mr. Sullivan said.
After the press conference, he and the U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, Bridget A. Brink, along with other officials, waited for several minutes in the dark hallways of the president’s office because the air raid alarm went off. Security services then explicitly notified American officials to leave the courtyard.
The foreign ministers of the Group of 7 wealthy democracies said after a two-day meeting in Münster, Germany, that they had agreed to work together to help Kyiv rebuild vital civilian infrastructure damaged or destroyed and they discussed supplying Ukraine with more air defense systems.
Report contributed by Richard Pérez-Peña from New York, Neil MacFarquhar from Paris, Eric Schmitt from Washington and Edward Wong from Münster, Germany.
