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https://theconversation.com/why-putins-retreat-from-kherson-could-be-his-most-humiliating-defeat-yet-194254>
"Life, as the saying goes, is coming at Vladimir Putin fast. Having gleefully
announced the annexation of four regions of Ukraine barely more than a month
ago – even as his army retreated within them – the Kremlin now says it’s
withdrawing from the only regional capital city it had captured since invading
in February 2022.
The grim announcement that Russia was abandoning Kherson was made by Russian
Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu, accompanied by Sergei Surovikin, Russia’s
latest commander of the war in Ukraine.
President Putin was absent from the proceedings, as is his habit when there’s
bad news to report. Even so, putting his top military leaders in front of the
cameras was a significant move. It thrust them into the spotlight, making it
clear who would be held responsible for further failures. But it was also
potentially a rare moment of relative honesty with the Russian populace,
marking the first time in the war that an official announcement about a
military defeat had been televised.
It’s true that Ukrainian authorities remain sceptical about the withdrawal
announcement, sensing a trap. They have claimed Russian units are integrating
into the civilian population and will try to take Ukrainian forces by surprise,
turning Kherson into an urban warfare bloodbath on a scale similar to the
destruction of Mariupol witnessed earlier in the war.
That certainly remains a possibility, so any analysis of implications should be
based on the caveat that this could well be a Russian ruse.
That said, a retreat from Kherson (which Russian forces captured in March
2022), has been on the cards for some time. Moscow has been quietly emptying
the city of its best forces over the past few weeks, replacing elite airborne
troops with newly mobilised conscripts.
As Surovikin himself admitted, the city was becoming impossible to hold in the
face of relentless Ukrainian artillery and missile strikes. Withdrawing to the
West Bank of the Dnipro River as winter approached was essentially the only
viable option, making the waterway itself a natural line of defence that
Ukrainian forces would have to cross to recapture any more territory."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
