The Daily Mail is reporting this morning that Putin’s invasion of Ukraine has ground to a halt, that Ukrainian soldiers continue to prevent Russia from taking more cities and winning this war despite so many predictions that Russia would overrun the country.
And some are even saying now that Ukraine may succeed.
Here’s the latest:
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine appears to have ground to a halt with no significant territory captured despite a weekend of heavy fighting, with Kyiv’s men claiming to have taken out dozens of helicopters and recaptured a city this morning – sparking hopes that the unlikeliest of victories may be on the cards.
Putin’s men renewed their bombardments on Mariupol, Chernihiv, Mykolaiv and Kharkiv this morning as hundreds of civilians tried to evacuate Irpin – on the outskirts of Kyiv – across a destroyed bridge after days of heavy attacks in an attempt to encircle the capital. But Russian commanders have not significantly advanced their frontline since the city of Kherson and nuclear power plant at Zaporizhzhia were captured last week.
Meanwhile the Ukrainian armed forces claimed to have destroyed up to 30 Russian helicopters that had been moved to Chornobaivka airport, near Kherson, overnight and to have retaken the city of Chuhuiv, near Kharkiv, killing two Russian commanders – Lt. Col. Dmitry Safronov, and Lt Col. Denis Glebov – in the process.
Russia also tacitly acknowledged the loss of two other commanders – Colonel Konstantin Zizevsky and Lieutenant Colonel Denis Glebov – whose funerals were held in Russia at the weekend.
Video also emerged which appeared to show Ukrainian defence forces based in Odessa, the country’s largest port, exchanging fire with ships overnight – one of which suffered a hit. Ukraine’s ministry of defence has since claimed the vessel, a corvette named Vasily Bykov, was destroyed.
11,000 Russian soldiers killed – the war is “slowly becoming unsustainable for Russia”…
Ukraine’s military now estimates that 11,000 Russian soldiers have been killed in fighting along with the loss of 1,000 armoured vehicles, 290 tanks, 68 helicopters, 46 planes and dozens of other piece of hardware. Independent observers give lower totals, but Franz-Stefan Gady – of the International Institute for Strategic Studies – said the situation is never-the-less ‘slowly becoming unsustainable for Russia’.
Russia has already committed 95 percent of it’s invasion force…
US intelligence believes Russia has committed 95 per cent of the invasion force it had assembled on Ukraine’s border to the fight, meaning significant reinforcements to push its attacks forward are unlikely to come soon – and could simply run into many of the same logistical problems that plagued the early assault.
That has prompted some – including UK general Admiral Sir Tony Radakin – to predict that Russia could actually lose the war. Asked by the BBC on Sunday whether victory for Putin’s men was ‘inevitable’, as many had predicted before the fighting started, he responded: ‘No.’
Defeat for Russia does not automatically mean victory for Ukraine, however. Despite heavy losses Putin’s men have still been able to capture key territory, particularly in the south, cutting Kyiv off from many of its vital Black Sea trading routes and naval bases.
Ukraine’s forces have proven dogged in defence but it remains to be seen whether they can counter-attack successfully and push Russian forces back across the border.
This is quite the optimistic picture of what’s happening in Ukraine and I hope it’s all true. I’d love nothing more than to see Ukraine defeat this Russian invasion, as I’m sure so many of you would as well.
As the Daily Mail suggested, UK General Admiral Sir Tony Radakin was on with the BBC yesterday and said that the Russian convoy that we all saw heading into Kyiv last week has turned into a huge problem for Russia as it has been repelled by Ukrainian soldiers and is stuck in place. He says morale is very bad and that Russian soldiers are camping out in the forest because they don’t want to stay in their vehicles.
British military’s top officer tells BBC morale in Russian forces plunging after units ‘decimated’ by Ukrainian fighters. Some Russian soldiers in long convoy stuck outside capital since Wednesday ‘camping out in the forest’ because equipment ‘failing’ pic.twitter.com/g14d3ZpkUu
— Lucas Tomlinson (@LucasFoxNews) March 6, 2022
Radakin said he doesn’t know if Ukraine has killed as many Russian soldiers as they claim but says Russia has suffered terrible losses.
As far as Radakin’s credibility, I think his unwillingness to simply parrot Ukrainian claims as fact suggests to me that he’s not just pushing Ukrainian propaganda.
Whatever the case in all of this, the fact that Russia hasn’t won this war yet is a pleasant surprise to me and if they have already committed 95% of their invasion force, then maybe Ukraine can win this.
Ben Shapiro tweeted this morning that if the West keeps a heavy flow of arms going into Ukraine, then maybe Putin will be forced to withdraw to save face:
The West's main option here is to keep up the heavy flow of weaponry and resources into Ukraine, allowing Ukraine to stave off Russian victory and pressuring Putin into taking some sort of face-saving offramp. Any diplomatic overtures without that key element will fail.
— Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro) March 7, 2022