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Kharkiv responds in kind to Ukraine

Russian soldiers were unexpectedly beaten back by Ukrainian forces in the Kharkiv sector, potentially undermining Putin's effort to conquer Donetsk.

By indika sampathPublished 2 years ago 14 min read
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Let's start off by saying that it is still extremely early and that it's very likely that Ukraine's drive is being overstated to hide the fact that the Kherson area has only made limited progress.

However, on general, compared to Russian or American sources, Ukrainian sources have shown to be far more trustworthy in terms of fundamental honesty.

The current conflict in Ukraine is being framed by a wider, impending conflict between Russia and NATO.

On both sides, trolls are conducting an informational conflict in an effort to keep domestic people engulfed in a constant stream of misinformation.

Although Ukrainian trolls are also playing this game, official Ukrainian outlets have typically adopted a prudent strategy of tolerable honesty with the foreign press throughout the previous six months of war.

No, Kiev doesn't make all of its plans public, but keeping an eye on sources like the Kyiv Independent (which I now support with a monthly subscription), Ukrinform, and Liveuamap over the past few months has revealed a clear distinction between information sourced from the United States, Russia, and Ukraine.

The majority of Ukraine's authorities seem to understand that playing information war games is far less significant than maintaining honesty in public communications.

Because of WMDs in Iraq, anyone? No one save commentators or ardent believers believe anything an American public figure says these days.

Furthermore, it is evident that you cannot believe whatever Putin's government officials or members of the state-run media say. At the very least, not without using the appropriate Kremlin filter to understand what they are actually attempting to say.

Because they are both hegemonic powers that depend on other nations not recognizing how weak they are, the United States and Russia spend a lot of time attempting to dominate narratives.

In contrast, Ukraine's defense depends on keeping strong ties with allies overseas who will provide assistance in both good and bad weather.

Therefore, lying about the difficulties its forces are experiencing is ineffective since all that would do is lay the foundation for a future reaction that Ukraine might not be able to withstand.

I fervently distrust anything originating from an American or Russian source because of this. The governments in charge of either empire have means of influencing the media: directly in the case of Russia, and indirectly in the case of the United States, by limiting access to "unnamed officials" and participating in public humiliation in front of a crowd.

The commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian Armed Forces just released a serious appraisal of the war's trajectory until 2023 that stands in stark contrast to the nonsense emanating from the American Institute for the Study of War's bogus experts.

He mostly supports the analysis I've been posting on this site for the past few months in it.

Ukraine continues to get inadequate assistance from its allies abroad. It will take months to complete its counterattacks, and much human misery will result from them.

Even while its inventories of precision weapons are now running short, Russia still maintains significant advantages in key military fields and has the capacity to replace its low-tech arsenal forever.

The provision of more advanced weaponry and instruction in their usage by Ukrainian troops will be necessary to drive Russia out of Ukrainian territory without suffering horrific fatalities.

NATO had best pray it never goes to war because boy would that be a hot mess! This should have started on the requisite scale months ago to allow for a significant counteroffensive this year, but Ukraine's allies have failed to mobilize the required effort.

Additionally, the International Legion was horribly mismanaged because Ukraine lacked the resources necessary to set up something so complex at the start of the war, when it was already enlisting a sizable portion of its own population in the defense forces.

Another chance that was lost.

As opposed to the cocky predictions of the experts in D.C. Russia is far from collapsing on any front, be it military or economic, because they recognized they were mistaken about Kyiv falling in three days. Putin is not indicted, dead of cancer, or pleading for peace.

All of the sanctions that American politicians claimed would spell the end for Russia's economy are gradually being lifted.

Re-exporting products and fossil fuels will gradually make up for Russia's loss of direct access to the European market because the majority of the globe hasn't joined.

Fuel and food costs will at least somewhat normalize. The likelihood of long-term energy dependency on the US is unfavorable given that US energy is mostly derived from fracking, which necessitates extensive sacrifices of rural land. Europe faces a challenging winter with this possibility.

This is not to imply that in the near future the typical Russian won't experience severe financial hardship or that Russia's defense industry won't need to drastically change in order to maintain the war effort.

But all it does is somewhat better level the playing field between Russia and Ukraine. Similar to deploying 16 HIMARS systems rather than 160 when they would otherwise be merely sitting in arsenals.

Nothing Ukraine has experienced thus far is adequate to strike a decisive blow. The situation for Ukrainian soldiers continues to be challenging everywhere along a front line that eerily resembles something from a World War 2 map, as acknowledged by Ukraine's own military command.

So why did Ukraine just deliver a brutal sucker blow to Russian military stationed close to Kharkiv?

there are several.

The perilous scenario between Izium and Sloviansk is the main concern.

Russian operations that, if successful, may partially cut off Ukrainian forces in Donetsk, notably in the strongly fortified Sloviansk-Kramatorsk area, have been halted for months by Ukraine's defenses.

It appears that a sizable number of Russian soldiers have been redeployed in order to halt Ukraine's pushback in Kherson.

However, despite the ease with which satellites and drones can detect large-scale movements, at more local levels and finer scales it is feasible to utilize cover to hide more patiently concentrated forces deployed over time.

Therefore, even if Russian troops are suffering over the 1300 kilometers of the front line that is intensively fought, it is still possible that Putin has managed to conceal a significant offensive formation.

A sudden, overwhelming thrust like the one that reached the outskirts of Kiev in February would be possible with such a reserve. In Kherson, where Russia may have increased its occupying soldiers from roughly 7,000 to three times that number precisely to pull Ukraine into a tough struggle, Ukraine may devote too much of its fighting might, leaving Kyiv's forces exposed elsewhere.

Putin definitely enjoys having Kherson as his own, but considering the enormous bridgehead Russian soldiers now control over the strategically significant Dnieper River, giving it for Donetsk is probably a deal he'll be happy to take, especially given how implausible a march to Moldova is.

Putin may declare victory and shift to the defense as long as his forces are in complete control of Donbas, forcing Ukraine to spend the next years spending blood fighting established forces.

All the while, its allies overseas gradually become weary of supporting the conflict at the expense of their economy.

Putin's main objective in Ukraine right now is to delay the arrival of America and Europe. Once Donbas is captured, he will bring the fighting to a simmer and hold the line with imported North Korean artillery and subpar reserve forces.

Even if Ukraine regains part of its lost territory, a strategic deadlock is probable without more substantial help. Only Ukrainian victories on the battlefield will be able to weaken his standing inside the Russian state before America most likely entirely disintegrates in 2025 due to the lack of really global sanctions regimes.

Putin will then have the chance to relaunch his offensive on the rest of Ukraine.

Therefore, it is imperative for Ukraine to stop Putin from completing the final of his stated war goals: capturing the entirety of Donbas. Russia must continue attacking until that is accomplished, albeit it seems more challenging every day.

Given the Russian troop concentrations, this strategic scenario calls for taking the chance of launching many offensives in September, targeting any area of the front that appears weak.

Their goal is to liberate land and hand the Russian military such glaring setbacks that Putin will be unable to go on the defense or declare victory.

Ukraine must exert as much pressure on Russia as it can in order to both show its allies that it is capable of attacking and to stop Russia from developing new offensive capabilities or using up those that it may currently have.

Ukrainian forces appear to be attacking the flanks of Russian battalions in Kherson and Kharkiv in an effort to cut off front line units from backup. They probably want to partially encircle Russian salients in order to force them to withdraw or, for better optics, to submit.

Water obstacles are challenging to force through if the other bank is in enemy control on the Kharkiv front, where the line of the Siverski Donets river has established itself as the main barrier separating the two sides.

However, riparian areas frequently contain cover, making it possible for armed formations to creep in and assemble covertly.

Even punch across the river at a vulnerable spot that the defenders may believe is too well protected to seize—until it's too late.

To the southeast of Kharkiv, Ukraine looks to have successfully penetrated the Russian defenses.

The town of Kupiansk, which is situated along the most direct path for supplies going to Russian forces fighting south of Izium, is their explicit aim, and according to some accounts, leading units have already arrived there.

If successful, Ukrainian troops will at least bring the Kupiansk region under direct fire, which will all but prevent any potential of Russia striking south from Izium (advancing fifty klicks in little more than a day or two obviously suggests momentum).

Why? Izium was one of the first locations I recognized before February as a possible Russian goal. If you look at the map above, Kupiansk is a key junction in the Russian supply lines supporting operations there.

So it turned out.

Any attempt to recreate what Russia did to drive Ukraine out of Luhansk would fail if the supply lines to Izium are cut.

We will chop off every red arrow threatening Sloviansk's flank and back.

Putin won't be able to pretend that everything is going according to plan on any front if that occurs since thousands of troops stationed in bridgeheads over two important rivers would be in danger.

There is a rationale behind Ukraine's repeated warnings about Putin's potential deployment of tactical nuclear weapons.

Since Russia's land forces may very well be as severely damaged as it will be fair to expect if Ukraine succeeds in this, that may very well be his only choice.

Fortunately for everyone, there aren't many truly suitable targets for Russian nuclear attacks because of the way Ukraine must manage its defense.

The majority of possible targets in Ukraine have either been destroyed or dispersed, so a nuclear bomb wouldn't much outperform a conventional warhead.

Furthermore, any nuclear use carries a significant risk of NATO involvement, which Putin is now likely to avoid given that there is little to gain from attacking NATO supply bases after so much equipment has already entered Ukraine and will continue to do so due to the nation's extensive borders with NATO.

In a dramatic escalation four months ago, the prospect of missile attacks on NATO bases seemed quite serious. There is a reason why the US has kept a carrier group, a marine amphibious group, and a few submarines stationed close to friends in Europe during the whole year.

Now, unless Russia is prepared to use nuclear weapons, attacking a NATO target is not really necessary. Additionally, NATO may need to intervene directly if Putin deploys a nuclear weapon to scare Ukraine by vaporizing a residential area or by just detonating one harmlessly high above Kyiv. In this case, there is a strong possibility that World War 3 may escalate quickly and violently.

This is probably the reason Russia is engaging in such risky games with Enerhodar; by preparing to accuse Ukraine of doing it, Russia is making it possible for a leak of radioactive material from the nuclear facility to be just as effective as an actual nuclear attack.

The short-term events would be difficult to impossible to verify with certainty, and Putin may regard the terror that a nuclear calamity would cause as beneficial to his goals.

An incident may, for instance, halt military activities in Kherson. Or provide Russia with a justification to mobilize its populace, which luckily has not occurred yet.

Currently, Russia is still fighting with one hand tied behind its back out of concern for what would happen to the stability of the government if too many Russians from the middle class were made to participate in a conflict they most certainly loathe. However, a significant enough occurrence might provide Putin justification to drag Russia into a real global war.

To create a humanitarian zone, a military force supported by the UN should be sent in, but there is little prospect of that occurring in a world where the UN is destined to become the League of Nations Mark 2.

In any event, if Ukraine succeeds in retaliating in Kharkiv, it might consolidate actual gains and provide credibility for its claim that, with enough backing, it can and will prevail.

Right now, that is the only course of action: complete support for Ukraine until Russian soldiers leave the country.

The general public rarely understands the degree to which practically everything is intertwined in combat.

In its most extreme form, war is anarchy since every organization must function under the most trying circumstances.

Because of this, battle exposes both the greatest and worst qualities of people: our desire to give our lives in defense of those by our sides as well as the cruelty with which we are capable of treating our fellow humans.

Ukraine has no option but to engage in this conflict since Russia has come to destroy a nation's identity and way of life. Until Putin's administration is overthrown, no one can ever be sure that his stupid "Russian World" ideology won't drive him to attack any region where Russian speakers are present.

which, by the way, includes the West Coast Therefore, in my opinion, the security of Ukraine immediately affects my own here.

The ripple effects that violence and conflict cause are the worst.

As Ukraine battles to liberate its people from this vicious attack, the entire world should be on its side.

The fact that a cowardly America is supporting Ukraine for its own geopolitical goals does not imply that it genuinely cares about Ukrainians, just as it does not imply that Russia is a friend to any nation that disagrees with the United States.

America and Russia are similar. That is how the world's relations function. I didn't receive a degree in it from Berkeley, taught by some of the foremost experts in the subject, just to be unable to grasp the contemporary scientific reality.

Whether we like it or not, a multipolar world is upon us all, and maintaining that there are only two sides, Good and Bad, Democracy and Autocracy, is plain suicide when hundreds of nuclear weapons are still in place across the world, ready to carry out their devastating mission.

Half measures can result in a compromise that is unsatisfactory on both sides. There can be no compromise on some ideas, such as one nation not being allowed to try to destroy another, or else there is no chance of achieving a permanent future peace.

Although its leaders refuse to acknowledge it, the American invasion of Iraq shattered it. It has also come to an end as a result of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, albeit it could take years for the collapse to occur as expected.

So good luck, Ukraine; you're fighting for the future and for all of us.

To Kherson, Kupiansk, and beyond!

All hope for mankind rests in the willingness to battle to protect one's home, regardless of the threat posed by a ruthless empire, a horde of money, or a rapidly changing environment.

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About the Creator

indika sampath

hello world

my name is indika sampath so I'm a article writer. you also can learn by reading somethings that important things.

thank you so much for visiting my profile

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