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| Photo by Metin Aktas/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images |
Russian dictator Vladimir Putin’s 70th birthday on Oct. 7 is hardly happy: Ukrainian forces keep advancing in the country’s east and south, while public criticism against the military commandment is mounting in Russia.
While Russian elites are not exactly urging the Kremlin to end its war in Ukraine, discontent among supporters of the invasion is growing.
A member of the Kremlin’s inner circle has directly confronted Putin in recent weeks with disagreements over the war, the Washington Post reported on Oct. 7, citing information obtained by U.S. intelligence.
According to the report, the insider shared discontent over Putin’s mismanagement of the war and mistakes being made by those in charge of the military campaign. The identity of the insider was not revealed in the report.
Earlier, high-profile Russian military bloggers and television propagandists like Vladimir Soloviev have acknowledged that things were going badly in the military and that the commandment must be held responsible.
After months without battlefield progress and Ukraine’s successful counteroffensive in September, Putin was forced to order what he called a “partial mobilization” of 300,000 reservist forces on Sept. 21.
Mounting domestic criticism over the mobilization is likely driving Putin to blame Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu for humiliating defeats in Ukraine, the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) said on Oct. 5. --->READ MORE HERE
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| Photo by Yasuyoshi Chiba/AFP via Getty Images |
Ukraine has liberated over 500 square kilometers of land in Kherson Oblast since the beginning of October, President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Oct. 6.
Ukrainian forces have seen “quite convincing successes” in Kherson Oblast despite the difficult front-line situation that “changes quickly,” according to Southern Operational Command spokesperson Natalia Humeniuk.
Ukrainian forces are advancing further into Kherson Oblast, making it as far as 20 kilometers in several directions along the front line, Humeniuk said. About 80% of the oblast is still occupied by Russia.
While continuing their push, Ukrainian forces are squeezing the Russian troops against the western bank of the Dnipro River, Humeniuk said.
According to the U.K. intelligence, a Russian withdrawal across the Dnipro River "makes defense of the rest of Kherson Oblast more tenable; but the political imperative will be to remain and defend.”
Russian troops are determined to hold on to Kherson as long as possible, with the city being the only regional capital Moscow has been able to capture since Feb. 24. Pulling back would be humiliating, since Kherson Oblast is among the four Ukrainian regions Moscow illegally declared annexed on Sept. 30.
But retreating from Kherson now would allow the Russian troops to cross the Dnipro in an orderly way, avoiding further loss of their equipment and saving soldiers’ lives. Back in September, the New York Times reported that Russian President Vladimir Putin had personally rejected requests from his commanders to withdraw from Kherson. --->READ MORE HEREFollow links below to +++++relevant+++++ and related stories:
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