“Igor Girkin, a former commander of pro-Russian separatists in Ukraine, said on Saturday that Ukrainian troops have “already won” the war against Russia.
Russian President Vladimir Putin launched his invasion of the Eastern European country on February 24, and was met with a strong defense effort from Ukraine, which was bolstered by military aid from its allies. Despite the vast size of Russia’s military, Moscow has failed to achieve any major goals. Ukrainian forces launched counteroffensives in recent days in Kherson and the Kharkiv region in an effort to take back territory.
On Saturday, Ukrainian troops made significant gains near Kharkiv, the second-largest city in Ukraine—forcing Russia to retreat from key cities including Izium and Kupyansk, according to Radio Free Europe.
Girkin, who also goes by Igor Strelkov, has long been seen as an anti-Ukraine hardliner. However, he acknowledged Ukraine’s victory in a Telegram post Saturday.”
Russia Sees ‘Major Defeat,’ Ukraine Has ‘Already Won’: Ex-Military Leader (newsweek.com)
| The Ukrainian counteroffensive in Kharkiv Oblast is routing Russian forces and collapsing Russia’s northern Donbas axis. Russian forces are not conducting a controlled withdrawal and are hurriedly fleeing southeastern Kharkiv Oblast to escape encirclement around Izyum. Russian forces have previously weakened the northern Donbas axis by redeploying units from this area to Southern Ukraine, complicating efforts to slow the Ukrainian advance or at minimum deploy a covering force for the retreat.Ukrainian gains are not confined to the Izyum area; Ukrainian forces reportedly captured Velikiy Burluk on September 10, which would place Ukrainian forces within 15 kilometers of the international border.[1] Ukrainian forces have penetrated Russian lines to a depth of up to 70 kilometers in some places and captured over 3,000 square kilometers of territory in the past five days since September 6 – more territory than Russian forces have captured in all their operations since April. Ukrainian forces will likely capture the city of Izyum itself in the next 48 hours if they have not already done so. The liberation of Izyum would be the most significant Ukrainian military achievement since winning the Battle of Kyiv in March. It would eliminate the Russian advance in northwest Donetsk Oblast along the E40 highway that the Russian military sought to use to outflank Ukrainian positions along the Slovyansk – Kramatorsk line. A successful encirclement of Russian forces fleeing Izyum would result in the destruction or capture of significant Russian forces and exacerbate Russian manpower and morale issues. Russian war correspondents and milbloggers have also reported facing challenges when evacuating from Izyum, indicating Ukrainian forces are at least partially closing a cauldron in some areas.[2] The Russian Ministry of Defense (MoD) announced the withdrawal of troops from the Balakliya-Izyum line on September 10, falsely framing the retreat as a “regrouping” of forces to support Russian efforts in the Donetsk Oblast direction – mirroring the Kremlin’s false explanation for the Russian withdrawal after the Battle of Kyiv.[3]The Russian MoD did not acknowledge Ukrainian successes around Kharkiv Oblast as the primary factor for the Russian retreat and claimed that Russian military command has been carrying out a controlled withdrawal from the Balakliya-Izyum area for the past three days. The Russian MoD falsely claimed that Russian forces undertook a number of demonstrative actions and used artillery and aviation to ensure the safety of withdrawing Russian forces. These Russian statements have no relation to the situation on the ground. |
Comment: Looks like the Rooshians were way past the “culminating point” of their effort in Ukraine. They are now paying the price for that.
“Hold up … we’ve gone too far too fast. Lets allow our back up to catch up, secure our lines of supply, and only then should we ….” That’s not the message Putin wanted to send. He wanted to send “Blitzkrieg city man, we’ll overwhelm you.” What is it, failure to assess the strength of your opponent, or just plain stupidity? I confess, a lifetime of being sold on the professionalism of the Russian military (at least their infantry and intelligence functions) makes their behavior inconceivable.
My opinions on important points remain.
1. This is Ukraine’s “Saratoga”.
2. Western Europe will desert Ukraine. Germany will call to reopen Nordstream and the rest will follow.
2. Ukraine can’t match Russia in men IF Russia goes to UMS. A Russian draft raises the question of whether young Russian men will risk their lives to prevent Ukrainian independence. I say no. Russia can’t win w/o a draft.
3. Russia has lots of land to defend. It can’t just bring all troops to Donesk. I think it was you Pat who remarked that many troops sent into Ukraine were from eastern Russia. Is Putin throwing oriental Russians into the fight to save western 18 year olds? Wait till the press gets hold of that.
4. It’s time for Putin to declare victory and go home. Concentrate all forces into the Donbass/Crimea and hold tight. That would put peace where some of your guest commentators suggested in March. Ukraine gives up Crimea and Donbass and gets peace.
5. As to NATO it’s way past time to say adieu. Eastern Europe should engage in an EEDA including Sweden through Hungry. I am not sure of Bulgaria. Western Europeans don’t give a rats ass about the east and probably vice versa.
Only just now happened upon this Colonel Lang,
https://hotair.com/jazz-shaw/2022/09/11/moscow-lawmakers-demand-putin-resign-n495669
Haven’t a clue as to whether the claim – at the moment – is accurate.
But if it is, could be big I think.
jk/ar
I read that they were arrested.
me too.
Uh oh Colonel Lang, Bill,
Reckon it’s Broken Windows Policing “Russian-style” about to, er, break out?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broken_windows_theory
If so, I for one sure hope Biden’s not gonna be asking for any of Arkansas’ glaziers to join up with Raytheon. We’ve yet to recover from that ‘Whoa Daddy! Hailstorm’ we got blessed with back last July.
I’ve heard unamused Russian security types have an issue with the sources of their unamusement unaccountably falling out of windows.
JK/AR. the article notes, “… A wounded beast is always the most dangerous one in the herd,..” Rather, it is the wounded beast in the herd that the pack of wolves pick out. Will there be a “pack of wolves” in Moscow?
Al
the wolves are already assembling…
U.S. military goals should include “de-imperialization” of Russia. That’s according to U.S. General Ben Hodges, former Commander EUCOM.
https://www.kyivpost.com/russias-war/u-s-must-be-prepared-for-end-of-russia-as-it-looks-today-hodges.html
Tupperware may already be out and they are keeping him in place as a dummy as they make it appear they are becoming a democracy with an article in the paper leading peacefully to an orderly resignation or referendum as they install the choice of Joe Biden’s bosses and play reformation. Whether physical Intel and security of Nato or London is rooming in the Kremlin already is a 50 50 shot imo.
Oops maybe I made a mistake. The Band mentioned in the article is Leningrad. Turn on Eng Subs.
Leningrad – For What Do the Bells of Moscow Sound?
Почём звонят колокола (Москва)?
https://youtu.be/kp8PmgPW_AI
****
11 сентября 20:38
Woman dies after falling from podium at Leningrad concert at Luzhniki
Two spectators fell from a high podium at a concert by the Leningrad group. One of the victims died in the hospital from cardiac arrest. The man fell from a height of ten meters, but survived. Doctors diagnosed him with a head injury. This is the first concert of Leningrad since 2019. The venue, designed for more than 80,000 seats, was almost completely filled with fans. The police are checking to find out how security was provided at the concert.
Two spectators fell from the podium at the Luzhniki stadium in Moscow, where the concert of the Leningrad group was held. As a result, one person died, another was seriously injured, according to the Telegram channel “112”.
42-year-old Oksana Televeva, who watched the concert on the D stand, felt bad and lost consciousness. Because of this, the woman fell from a ten-meter height. She was given first aid and urgently hospitalized, but she died in hospital. According to preliminary information, the cause of death was cardiac arrest. Relatives claim that the deceased never complained about health problems.
In addition, 20 minutes after the start of the concert of the St. Petersburg band, a 39-year-old man fell into the aisle from the upper tier of the same tribune. At first, he got on a stretched advertising banner, and this softened the fall. The man lost consciousness, he was called an ambulance and helped by his friends. The victim was taken to the hospital named after Botkin with a head injury.
***
https://twitter.com/defmon3/status/1568873080474275841?s=21
Curious, have the Ukrainian military gone too far too fast? It appears they are close to the Russian border in some areas.
when’s the time to launch discussion of the next phase in the collapse of the SU?
Several interesting maps here, one especially that shows in time lapse the Ukraine advances.
https://twitter.com/War_Mapper
It looks like Russia has started going after Ukrainian civilian infrastructure.
A number of attacks against power plants and power distribution centers are being reported.
That is Putin’s gloves off initiative. Russia will bomb Ukraine back to the 14th century. Ukraine must have anticipated this … now what? Ukraine c/n destroy Moscow from the air but Moscow can destroy Kiev. What is Putin’s msg to Ukraine… “I will kill you b/f I allow you to be independent of Mother Russia”.
Does this sound melodramatic? I think it’s frank. What other msg can there be? Bells s/b going off in Helsinki, Riga, Bratislava etc …want to look upon “mothers” angry face? Look hard. She never loved you … but you knew that didn’t you.
Borko –
“Half of Belgorod is left without electricity after what appears to be a Ukrainian attack on its central electricity distribution station”.
Turnabout is fair play. Belgorod won’t be the only Russian city that ends up w/o power.
They’ve been going after civilian infrastructure for months. In particular hospitals and universities.
PH
Who is “they?”
The Russians. Mostly by using missiles.
“a lifetime of being sold on the professionalism of the Russian military…” smells like 5th column work to me.
I follow Strelkov’s Telegram, do not recall him writing this and thought the apparent defeatism out of character so I checked. Lo and behold Newsweek have employed selective quotation, always a favorite of the Lügenpresse. For the record, a Yandex machine translation of the pertinent part of Strelkov’s Telegram post yields “The opponent has already won the ‘Battle for Initiative'”. Given as how Newsweek have twisted this to mean “already won the war” I can see why they do not bother to provide a link to the post (below).
I also note that on this same page Newsweek link to an article entitled “Free Speech is Becoming Dangerous Again”. What is their motto, “Ignorance is Strength”?
https://t.me/s/strelkovii/3200
Barbara Ann,
Noticing things like that is bad. Speaking them is certainly proof of a thought crime.
I dunno know who sold me, but I always thought they were good. However the first time I questioned if the were ten feet tall was after their 2 1/2 years in Afghanistan. I d/n think they had feet of clay thereafter, but I did realize they were human after all.
BR
The Soviet 40th Army fought poorly in Afghanistan, had poor logistics and terrible officer/soldier relations.
As I read that article Girkin is saying the Ukrainian’s won the initiative, not the war.
“… “Battle for the initiative” the enemy has already won. Now we should talk about preventing the Armed Forces of Ukraine from encircling and destroying large formations of our troops.”…”
Escalation. See where it goes.
It seems Nato had a pretty heavy presence in this and the Russians can’t afford to give up, this close to their borders, so WW3, here we come.
Weren’t the Russians already close to their borders b/f they invaded Ukraine?
The Russkies c/h backed off then so can’t they back off now?
Pat….
I Am wondering At This Point..What Russia will Do Next And..
Is It Possible Your Platform Could Be Shut Down Again If Russian (Bat Cat etc)
Hackers Shut Down Those same Refinerys also shut you Down last time >>?
JT
JT
Wait and see. Last time it was a system malfunction in the overseas hosting company.
Sun Sept 11th Reports in Ukrainska Pravda…Russian Long Range TU22 3M
Bombers hitting North and Southern Ukraine With X-22 MISSLES..
JT
Colonel,
The world would be very lucky, now that Boris Johnson is only a MP, if the West accepts the armistice proposed last April that he scuttled. Peace and natural gas for winter heating in exchange for recognizing Russia’s right to Crimea that it has held since 1783, plus water rights from the Dnieper River, sounds like a good bargain to me. A DMZ would need to be built on the bank of the river along the line of contact. Ukraine can’t join EU or NATO. That is not a loss.
I’ve always thought that the forever wars were for profiteering. I think Russia took this out of the West’s playbook. But unlike Syria, the Kremlin screwed it up big time. If the Russian natural gas shutoff continues, Volkswagen, Siemens, and Bayer will close down. There will be no corporate profits. If they would get their heads out of where the sun doesn’t shine, World War III could be avoided.
VV Did you forget to say that Russia also recognizes Ukraine’s right to exist as a sovereign state, agrees Ukrainians do exist, and that the Republic of Ukraine is not an administrative unit of Russia?? Were I Zelinskyy I’d trade away the Donbass and Crimea for that.
BR,
Yes. For Ukraine to sign the armistice it must be a viable sovereign nation that retains Odessa and access to the Black Sea. The future peace would more likely be assured if the UN or a coalition of Eastern European nations are co-signers and man the DMZ.
The future of Donbas is tough. Right now, it is the contested war zone. Perhaps all of it could be in the de-militarized zone free of Kiev and Moscow.
NATO is so closely associated with the West’s expansion east; I assume Russia considers it “Not Agreement Capable”. If an armistice is not signed, the war will drag on for years or until one or the other side (Russia or NATO) uses tactical nuclear weapons to avoid a defeat. For this reason, I am hoping that the current Russia “collapse” is hype and it stays localized in Eastern Ukraine. I live within the Hydrogen Bomb blast radius of a US Joint Air Base that is no doubt targeted once strategic nuclear weapons are ignited to avoid losing them.
I rather think that the decision regarding Crimea and Donbas are ones for Ukraine, rather than NATO.
But..this military genius, whom you pay so much trust, was not that leading the retreat in Sloviansk, during the 2014 year rebellion in Donbas, who lost a whole bunch of teeange militia children of both sexes who were left in the front lines defending the retreat? Way too expensive for such a genious…He miraculously resulted alive and well…A coward, I bet…
He should shut up, since, if the Russians would be following his “style”, they would had lost to this date half their military personel involved in this operation… On the contrary, they seem to be very conservative regarding human loses and they prefer to ceede territory than to experience a carnage…
What would you had done in their place?