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Since the Ukrainian counteroffensive in November, Russia has been trying to recapture the Kherson region. Now Putin is taking action against the failures.
Kiev – The Russian Defense Ministry has detained two of its commanders, according to reports from military bloggers Ukraine war dismissed after failing to recapture lost territory from the Ukrainian counteroffensive in the summer and fall of 2023. The two executives are said to have tried, among other things, in vain threatening Ukrainian bases on the eastern bank of the Dnieper in the Kherson region to destroy and push back the Ukrainian armed forces. The reports cannot be independently confirmed.
First, the US think tank Institute for the Study of War (ISW) reported on the layoffs. These are said to be, on the one hand, Lieutenant General Arkady Marzoev, commander of the 18th Russian combined arms army, which is fighting near Krynky in the Kherson region, and, on the other hand, the commander of the 70th motorized rifle regiment, which is fighting nearby from Robotyne, Zaporizhzhia region. The second commander was not named by Russian military bloggers.
There is apparently great frustration after the Kherson bankruptcy: Putin is said to have fired several commanders
According to the ISW, it is difficult to verify the messages that were spread on April 13th and 14th. The fact is that the Ukrainian armed forces had actually established several strategically important bridgeheads in the east of Kherson Oblast in November 2023 and could not be pushed back. For Ukraine, the new bases meant a step closer to retaking the Crimean peninsula, which was annexed by Russia.
Soldiers “of the 70th Motorized Rifle Regiment have been regularly conducting counterattacks to retake territory in and around Robotyne since September 2023, suffering significant losses,” the ISW analysis continued. Both Russian regiments therefore failed to recapture all of the territory in the Zaporizhzhia and Kherson oblasts that had been taken by the Ukrainian offensives.
Kherson in the south of Ukraine is hotly contested – new Russian commanders are expected to bring long-awaited victories
The ISW suspects that the Russian Ministry of Defense wants to assure its country of credible success from the area in Ukraine and has therefore dismissed the commanders. It is obvious that with new leaders there will also be new conquests in the areas around Robotyne and Krynky.
The south of Ukraine remains heavily contested. Russian forces recently managed to advance close to the Ukrainian-occupied bridgehead in eastern Kherson. At the same time in the region Kherson increased the number of Russian soldiers deserting be. (nz)