Ukraine war: Kyiv claims first victories of counter-offensive - BBC News
Ukraine war: Kyiv claims first victories of counter-offensive - BBC News
Kyiv says it has liberated four villages - the first since President Zelensky announced the offensive.
- Ukraine says it has liberated four villages in the south-east, calling these the first settlements won back from Russia since Kyiv's counter-offensive began
- On Monday morning, officials reported that "the national flag is once again waving" over Storozhove, in the Donetsk region
- A day earlier, footage showed Ukrainian troops celebrating in Blahodatne and Neskuchne - and a minister said nearby Makarivka was also taken
- The settlements are relatively small - and Moscow is yet to confirm any retreat
- The Institute for the Study of War backs up Kyiv's claims, saying Ukraine captured "multiple settlements" along the frontline over the weekend
- On Saturday, President Zelensky acknowledged that the long-awaited counter-offensive was under way
I understand this is a positive news in the first week of the counter offensive, but to me - it makes me feel depressed.
It makes me look at the size of Ukraine and the occupied areas. There are thousands or probably ten thousands of occupied settlements and villages. Reporting 5 of e.g. 18.000 liberated... it is positive, it is a news, it makes me depressed looking at the scaled of what lies ahead in this war to get Russia out of Ukraine.
The thing I am hoping for and expecting, that this is not a continuous speed. In the past, we have seen Russian lines disintegrate, troops flee in civilian clothing and the front lines moved tens of kilometers within a single day.
I think it's what you said, it is not continuous speed. The offensive may slow down, may accelerate - let's be honest, there is even the chance of failure. However, looking at the last 6-9 months, we should be optimistic. The recapture of a small village may not seem impactful, for people who were born there, lived there until the war or even still live there under Russian oppression - it means the world to them.
The recapture of a small village may not seem impactful, for people who were born there, lived there until the war or even still live there under Russian oppression - it means the world to them.
That's right. There were many examples, but even with the recent ones like destroying dams is clear they don't care about the people, they care about the land. And even ethnic Russians don't want to be under their control.
I understand we're you're coming from but I think that's a wrong way to look at it. The villages and towns rarely are equal in the face of front-line activities - some offer great defense opportunities and can be held for months. Most are strategically unimportant and their freedom is reclaimed by battles fought in other locations. History books are full of small town names that have witnessed grand battles and sometimes a victory over a small patch of land can translate to a much greater victory later on.
Edit: typo
Just remember how Kharkiv oblast was liberated in September 2022. Ukraine made some progress in the weeks before, which put enough pressure on the Russian occupiers to make the continued occupation untenable, so they had to pull back into Luhansk.
Something similar could easily happen here, all it needs is a cirumvention of the defense fortifications to push far enough to disrupt e.g. the supply lines between Donetsk and Crimea, and significant parts of the occupation could crumble quickly.
Ukraine will need to push through the first and second lines of defense, where the Russians are extremely dug in. Once they breech those fortifications it should become like driving a scalpel through Russian defenses.
If they manage to go through the first lines of defense, they'll operationally encircle a lot of Russian positions on the west, either prompting the Russian forces to retreat or get trapped in the pocket.
TL;DR this is the hard part
27k settlements according to a quick search. Yikes.
But progress in anything is rarely sweeping and most commonly a matter of chipping away at an issue one tiny step at a time. Environmental issues, social issues. Unless you're finally hitting a watershed moment it's a depressing battle of inches. But you won't ever get the former unless you commit to the later.
Also, while it's easy to reduce humanity down to numbers at the scale of a war, to the people finally getting to rejoin their country today -- this is the victory that matters. The one they will remember most clearly after the war is over. To us on the outside it might seem small, but to those people it's their entire world.
Hopefully russia crumbles from within. They are doing everything possible to show that this is a battle between "good" and "evil" - the destructin of cities, kidnapping children, rape, castration, civilian deaths from distance and in person.
This will not happen. The reason that you think that is due to the fact that this is the most propagandized wars I've ever seen from personal experience. That heavy amount of propaganda is flowing both ways.
Basically, everything you just described is the natural consequence of war. That's not excusing the Russians, but acknowledging that there are always examples of everything on that list on both sides in basically any war. It doesn't matter if one side causes much more of those things than the other side when it comes to propaganda. All that matters is that both sides have done it. Then, the Russians use that to make their own propaganda. Which they've done. The Russian population honestly also believes that this is a war of good vs evil. To be clear, I'm not saying that it is, just that the Russian population, fed Russian propaganda, believe in this war.
The end result of all of the above words is that the unrest in Russia at this point is due to Russians being unhappy that Putin isn't more aggressive. If Putin is replaced in a coup, the person that replaced him will be more aggressive against Ukraine, not less.
Slava Ukraïni!
This is a fascist slogan.
Slava Ukraini! 🇺🇦 Good to see
Loving how the liberals have to leave their shitty site to migrate over here. Whats wrong with reddit?
I have to genuinely ask - who is the liberal in this context? People are leaving reddit because it's encouraging them to do it, simple as that.
Apologies for the confusion, this comment is only for the radlibs arguing under your post. There's plenty of them using really disgusting slurs.
Now we see Schrodingers offensive has resolved itself- any success means the offensive is now happening for real and however meek the victories they will be inflated to an appropriate size. I'm sure the Western news and the redditors that lap it up will be just as excited when the offensive grinds to a halt and these villages are retaken
I wish there was a way to block all lemmygrad tankie cretins as an individual account
Sounds like this war is nearly over!
Don't confuse propaganda for the actual status of the war.
it literally took 1 day for the cia and nafo freaks to overrun lemmy world news..
TIL iam a CIA freak
People that call themselves communists but support Putin make me sick.
Don't you know that Marx himself called for strong repressive governments that order their citizens to attack neighboring countries and specifically target civilians?
Nice straw man, nobody actually says that.
An area amounting to about 6 km by 6 km. Still an excuse for cheerleading and manufacturing consent for escalation. One of the villages is like 6 houses.
It's funny how with certain folks its always the fighting back that's the escalation, never the original aggression...
I guarantee you it means something to the residents of those six houses.
It's easy to lose track of individual humanity at the scale of a war, but this victory is the one these people will always most remember when they think of the tide turning. Their lives are worth something.
No they didn’t. They said Slava Ukraïni. Someone else responded with the hero one, but not the person you replied to
Ukraine doesn't really win anything. This is the third Army they are wasting. Too bad for the Ukrainian conscripts.
Third army? Did the other two go somewhere?
Hell, if you're religious.