Ukrainian counterattack | ISW: Even the elite Russian troops are now fleeing the Ukrainian military

Foreign countries|Ukrainian counterattack

Ukrainian the Russian divisions defeated in the most recent battles have been considered elite forces, but now they too have had to retreat in the counter-attacks that humiliated Russia.

At the same time, the President Vladimir Putin the planned deployment to supplement the Russian military forces is in serious trouble. Only a small number of poorly trained reinforcements have been delivered to the Ukrainian front, says the Institute for the Study of War, an American think tank following the war in Ukraine (ISW).

Ukraine has now progressed rapidly, especially in southern Ukraine, in the northern parts of Kherson province and on the border of Luhansk province. Ukrainian troops at their best has been reported progressed up to 40 kilometers per day.

According to ISW, the Russian divisions beaten by the Ukrainians in the Kherson and Lyman region have been considered the best forces in conventional warfare.

“Even the best Russian troops are humiliated as the war progresses. The phenomenon was also seen earlier in the counterattack in Kharkiv,” states ISW in its report.

With these the divisions have experience of previous defeats against Ukrainian forces.

Another of the divisions was sent at the beginning of the war in February to capture the capital, Kiev. However, the operation, which was planned to last a few days, ended with the retreat of the Russian troops.

In the latest fighting, the same troops have fled from Lyman and retreated to Kreminna on the Luhansk side, where another escape route may await the troops if Ukraine continues to move forward.

The retreating Russian troops in the Kherson province have, on the other hand, gained experience in, for example, the wars in Chechnya. The division was also involved in seizing the Crimean peninsula belonging to Ukraine in 2014 and received honors from Putin for “successful execution of military operations” and “courage and heroism”.

To the same at a time when the sharpest point of the Russian army has had to lick its wounds, Putin’s campaign is in dire straits, reports ISW.

“The business launch in Russia suffers from serious bureaucratic difficulties and limitations. The difficulties may hamper Putin’s plans for amassing the necessary forces to continue the war in Ukraine,” ISW writes in its report.

Putin’s goal in the partial campaign has been to assemble a 300,000-strong military force and send it to an offensive war. However, the Kremlin has come as a surprise to the large opposition of the project among the citizens. Even hundreds of thousands of draftees have fled the country, draft offices have been attacked and Russians have shown their irritation in demonstrations.

Inexperienced and even old men have also been sent to the war front, which, at least publicly, was not the original goal of the Russian leadership.

Read more: “The war is being prolonged to the point where Europe starts to freeze” – the message of the Russian mercenaries from the front is harsh

The Russian men invited to the launch gathered at the command in Volgograd on September 28. Picture: Reuters

Among others, GUR, the Ukrainian military intelligence service, tells about the difficulties of launching the business report.

Ukrainian information tells, for example, about the difficulties faced by the military commissar in charge of recruitment. The commissar should have distributed 170 enlistment orders in his area, but managed to deliver only 16 of them, because the Russian men hid in their apartments and refused to open the door to the recruits.

Business launch difficulties have been acknowledged in Russia as well.

For example, the former commander of the Southern Military District of Russia Andrei Gurulev estimates at the beginning of October that the mobilization of 300,000 soldiers will not be achieved due to difficulties. According to Gurulev, the difficulties have been the reason why recruitment agencies have creatively applied the criteria for those who qualify as soldiers.

According to GUR, citizens’ dissatisfaction in Russia is not reduced by the fact that the soldiers cannot be properly equipped, and salaries have not been paid as promised.

In addition, the Russian Duma has rejected of the initiative, according to which the mobilized soldiers would have been paid a one-time bonus of around five thousand euros and they would have received benefits, among other things, for mortgage interest, says ISW.

“The Kremlin’s failures in complying with the laws related to business proposals and the systematic breaking of promises will probably increase indignation and alienation among citizens,” the think tank estimates.