After attacking several points of the front, Ukraine concentrated all its forces in this town, where the invaders, uncoordinated and with few means, preferred to withdraw rather than die or be imprisoned in a “shameful” massive raid.
Russian troops decided to withdraw from Liman rather than face the dilemma of massive loss of life or the shameful image of thousands of soldiers being captured at once by the Ukrainians, just one day after President Vladimir Putin formalized Russia’s annexation of the four occupied regions in the neighboring country. The chosen option wanted to dress up as a withdrawal with a view to a subsequent reorganization of the defensive line, although the US and UK Intelligence services believe that the invading Army did not leave intact.
He suffered very important losses in his flight. The images released yesterday show dozens of corpses in the gutters or scattered in the meadows. The Russians had to break through the Ukrainian encirclement to retreat into Lugansk Oblast through a narrow corridor. The exit was so wild that combatants from both sides ended up locked in a fight with small arms, leaving a trail of dead and wounded that neither Moscow nor kyiv plan to reveal.
British intelligence maintains that the Kremlin lacked sufficient forces in Liman to defend its position. An assessment that coincides with the justification of the Russian Ministry of Defense itself to order the withdrawal. The Ukrainians “outnumbered us and outnumbered us,” explained a high command, so the General Staff preferred to give the evacuation order before the pincers closed completely around the city. In such a case, the occupants would only have had the option of continuing the fight to the death or surrendering in a “shameful” mass surrender, according to a Moscow correspondent.
The first analyzes by Russian experts explain the defeat not only because of the rival’s superiority, but also because of some errors that seem to have become “typical” in this war: the individuality of the officers in decision-making, the delay in supplies, the deficits coordination of units on the ground and the repeated abandonment of their posts by mercenaries.
Chechen leader Kadyrov, in a lengthy diatribe against the General Staff, blamed General Alexander Lapin for disseminating the soldiers throughout the city’s defense lines without giving them ammunition or radios to communicate with each other. He also accused her of having moved his headquarters to Starobelsk, inland from Lugansk: “How can you quickly manage units being 150 kilometers away from them?”
outdated teams
In addition, strategists believe that the Army faces a serious lack of modern reconnaissance and electronic surveillance equipment, at least with the level of sophistication of the systems with which the US supplies the troops in kyiv. They remember that one of the successes of the occupation of Liman, last April, was precisely the success of the National Guard to destroy the Ukrainian espionage and attack drones, so that they left the way clear for the infantry and the special forces.
How has this enclave been lost? Its origin lies in the reconquest three weeks ago of Kharkov by local forces, allowing them to regroup and concentrate their next target in Lugansk. In these last twenty days, the kyiv Army has pressed at different points of the Russian defensive line north of Kupiansk, in Lisichansk and near Liman. Apparently, the fighting in these areas did not provide profits to the Ukrainians, whose commands then decided to focus on Liman with all their available war material.
According to a correspondent accompanying the invading contingent, kyiv attacked with its reserves stationed in Slavyansk, Seversk tank units, drones and light armor that “squeezed” one enclave after another on their way to Liman and cut off the roads. A not trivial fact. The Russian artillery had to dedicate itself not only to stopping the offensive but to protecting a single path of retreat, the “corridor of life”, through which the Russian soldiers left.
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