British military intelligence assures attack in Donbas has “lost strength” and is not registering major “progress”
Atlantic Alliance Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said last Sunday that “Ukraine can win this war”. Perhaps such a statement is too optimistic, but since NATO has privileged information and has seen the results on the ground, nothing more than two weeks before the 100 days from the start of the invasion is ruled out. There are even analysts who argue that if Russia had no nuclear power, it would have already lost the battle. They are based on the withdrawal from Kharkiv or on events that took place on the banks of the Seversky Donets River in the Luhansk region, where Moscow reportedly lost two battalions and more than 70 tanks. In addition, Kiev assures that its forces will push the invaders back to its borders in some parts of Donbas.
When Russian troops invaded Ukraine on February 24, everything indicated that the operation would quickly and inevitably backfire on Ukraine. Endless columns of armored vehicles arrived, the country’s capital was immediately surrounded and cities like Kharkov, Chernígov or Kherson were heavily attacked. However, the advance soon showed signs of slowing down and the world began to witness an endless list of news that made it clear that the invader’s superiority was not reflected on the battlefield.
The scourge of the drones on the armored columns has rendered hundreds of these vehicles useless, the weapons sent by the West have fought against the perhaps overvalued Russian troops, who have also left behind a large number of high commanders and soldiers of the troops. . the route. The latest balance released by the Ukrainian authorities speaks of 27,200 casualties and British intelligence estimates that a third of Russian forces on the ground (between 100,000 and 150,000) were killed.
In late March, President Vladimir Putin announced that his military would focus its efforts on “the liberation of the Donbas region. The expected macro-offensive to celebrate Victory Day has not made any remarkable progress and despite the ongoing bombing campaign, Ukrainian soldiers entrenched in the Azovstal steel mill in Mariúpol continue to fight.
“Despite initial small-scale progress, Russia has failed to make significant territorial gains in the past month,” says British military intelligence, which has no doubts: “The offensive has run out and is well behind schedule. Ukraine is overwhelming, but it is powerful enough to push back the enemy, as evidenced by what happened last week on the banks of the Seversky-Donets River in the Luhansk region, where defenders allegedly broke several bridges across the riverbed. to impede the enemy advance from Kremlinna to Kharkov, the Russians were forced to place special structures on the water to continue their way, an operation that took longer than expected and caused a high concentration of military troops on one of the banks of the river Once the ‘pontoons’ were installed, some managed to cross, ma ar the rest fell into an ambush that led to a battle that lasted several days, according to the Kiev Ministry of Defense.
A report by the United States Institute for War Studies estimates the Kremlin-driven side’s losses at 485 dead soldiers and 80 damaged equipment. This group of expert analysts assures that the Moscow armed forces have “made significant tactical mistakes.” Other media assure that Russia would have lost two battalions there, which in the worst case would mean up to 2,000 casualties among the dead, wounded and prisoners.
Satellite images from the intelligence company BlackSky show the consequences of the confrontation. In the middle of the river are several turrets and cannons sticking out of the water and the road on one of the banks seems plagued by a rosary of tanks and other totally destroyed transport. Some media say that many Russian soldiers chose to run away and leave all weapons and supplies behind. The success of the skirmish has been confirmed by the Reuters agency, which ensures that “Ukraine now controls large tracts of land around the river after fierce fighting.”
Ukraine did not miss the opportunity to propagate victory. “The Russians bathed in the Seversky-Donets River and some were burned by the May sun,” the Defense Ministry said on its social networks. Russia, for its part, assures that it was its army that blew up the original bridges to prevent the arrival of Ukrainian troops.
The withdrawal of some points from the Donbas confirms that the march on that point of the front is not going as it should, a fact already being discussed among the pro-Russians. The American Institute for War Studies assures that several Telegram channels favorable to Moscow (with about 300,000 followers) are criticizing the Russian General Staff “for not having learned from previous combat mistakes”, as well as the slowness of offensive operations. They attribute some of the problems “in part to ineffective aerial reconnaissance and the negative effects of poor morale within the Russian military.”
The defeat at Seversky is a blow and has served as a prelude to the departure of Russian troops from Kharkov, the second largest city in Ukraine after Kiev. The refusal to take it, according to the Institute for the Study of War, is due to both the Ukrainian counter-offensive and the limited capacity to receive reinforcements from Moscow. “The Ukrainian troops prevented the Russians from surrounding and taking it. Later they expelled them from the outskirts of the city, as they did when the Russians tried to take Kiev,” they claim.
Source: La Verdad
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