So are there any semi-reliable figures yet on the toll Russia took (in both men and materiel) in the retreat?
No. Ukrainian officials haven’t said much. There’s the Ministry of Defense’s daily updates to Russian losses, which do show relatively high numbers over the past few days, but they’ve shown relatively high numbers for a couple weeks now mostly due to attempted Russian offensives around Donetsk City, Bahkmut, and Soledar. It’s impossible to guess how many casualties they think they inflicted. After the first wave of liberation videos which were almost entirely babas giving hugs and flowers to Ukrainian soldiers, there’ve been a steady stream of videos of captured heavy equipment and materiel. A couple ammo depots, a fair number of armoured vehicles, and lots and lots of burned out equipment that may well be from weeks or months ago. Even the captures could well be vehicles which weren’t operable enough for the Russians to drive out.
In all, it does look like the withdrawal was executed fairly well. Some OSINT sources on Twitter have gone back and are now saying that it looks like they might have started moving equipment across the river as long ago as mid-October. This might have been an intelligence failure on the part of Ukraine/the West, in that had they realized they could have pushed harder earlier and messed up the withdrawal. Or maybe they intentionally let it happen in hopes of avoiding urban fighting in Kherson, calculating that it was worth letting the Russians get away to take Kherson intact without a big fight.
That would be a good judgment call. Who wants another Mariopul?
The fighting around Donetsk is intense. The Russians keep trying to break through.
I haven’t seen that many attacks in Awhile. A lot of people must be dying.
Russians even took back a village in Kherson.
You would off by more than a century.
I’d forgotten about Pancho Villa’s men. Lieutenant George S. Patton had a small role in chasing Villa.
Does the Japanese invasion of Alaska {1942) count? Alaska wasn’t a state, but it was a U.S. territory.
The US flag was still being flown over the Commonwealth of the Philippines when the Japanese invaded and occupied it.
That was a US colony, not part of the US.
Both Puerto Rico and the Northern Marianas are currently designated as commonwealths of the US. Are you saying that they are also not parts of the US?
Apparently I’m not as safe from invasion as I thought.
I’m still very thankful our closest border with Russia is separated by the Bering Sea.
Ukraine has a front row seat.
Anyway, back to the war.
Elan, you say?
Seems strangely relevant.
Zelensky visits Kherson. Brave guy. He doesn’t hide in a bunker.
He would have performed in cities across Ukraine . It has to be difficult visiting now. The theatres are usually beautiful old buildings.
I suspect he agreed for a pardon. Apparently a lot of prisoners feel the risk is worth getting out of prison. i.e. The Dirty Dozen.
There’s a long history of law breakers joining armies to earn a new life. French Foreign Legion.
So, if we see a very tall African-American in Russian uniform, fighting in Ukraine.
Nah, she’s too high profile.
Guardian feed
There are rumors that some of the prisoners aren’t, by our definition, volunteers. There are several ways to coerce “volunteering”.
Truly barbaric. There really need to be some war crimes trials after this is over.
Indeed. Simply summary executions are bad enough. The Wagner Group seems to go out of their way to be egregiously atrocious. From the article:
The atrocities of the Wagnerites have been known for a while. And Prigozhin’s mercenaries have been using a sledgehammer for murders since the war in Syria. The evidence of how in 2017 in Syria, the Wagnerites beat a man to death, quartered the body and burned it may be found in the network.
HIGHLY unconfirmed!!!
I am picking up some interwebs noise that with some phantasy might suggest that the Ukr have already moved over to the eastern/left bank of the Dnepro, coming from the south side of Kherson without having stopped in Kherson…
If true, another great and unexpected move, coming from the black-sea-side … no idea how that would have happened and how big any eventual contingents would be …
Interesting rumors. I wouldn’t be surprised if Ukrainian special forces are doing stuff across the river. I think it would be hard to hold territory or sustain an offensive from there without a secure crossing of the river for vehicles.
United Nations General Assembly votes on making Russia responsible for paying reparations to Ukraine: