Troops report fewer Russian soldiers than expected, but those who remain are well-equipped and putting up resistance. JL
Matthew Luxmoore reports in the Wall Street Journal:
Ukrainian army units pushing toward Kherson in the south are retaking ground held for months by Russia’s invading troops amid extremely fierce fighting, according to Ukrainian soldiers taking part in the offensive. Russian soldiers seemed well-equipped and were putting up stiff resistance, the Ukrainians said. Some Russian troops are fleeing their positions, abandoning equipment and booby-trapping the bodies of dead comrades they leave behind. “They have a lot of equipment but few men.” Ukrainian losses, even if the offensive is successful, could be high as assaulting an entrenched enemy with significant firepower can chew up troops. “Go in, f—them up, retake what’s ours.”Ukrainian army units pushing toward Kherson in the south are retaking ground held for months by Russia’s invading troops amid extremely fierce fighting, according to Ukrainian soldiers taking part in the offensive.
Russian soldiers seemed well-equipped and were putting up stiff resistance, the Ukrainians said.
“They’re throwing everything against us,” said a 22-year-old Ukrainian soldier who said Russians were fighting with artillery, tanks, helicopters and mortars. “They have a lot of equipment but few men.”
Interviews with eight soldiers who took part in fighting—and were being treated for injuries at a hospital behind the front lines—offered the most detailed on-the-ground picture yet from an offensive that Ukraine hopes will help it seize the initiative in the conflict and show its Western backers, and its own people, that its military can take on Moscow’s army and win.
Ukrainian officials are saying little publicly about the offensive, citing the need for secrecy in military operations.
The Pentagon’s assessment, given at a briefing by its spokesman Wednesday, appeared to support the soldiers’ cautious optimism.
“We are aware of Ukrainian military operations that have made some forward movement, and in some cases in the Kherson region we are aware of Russian units falling back,” Air Force Brig. Gen. Patrick Ryder told reporters.
The soldiers and medics at a hospital in southern Ukraine agreed to speak on condition that their identities and location wouldn’t be revealed. All took part in the offensive that began Monday with the aim of seizing the initiative in the war.
The attacks Monday at several points along the front lines came after weeks of softening up Russian forces with long-range rocket attacks.
Ukraine’s long-awaited thrust in the south is advancing into territory that the Russians occupied in the early days of their invasion, according to soldiers who took part in fighting. But it is a hard slog against a well-equipped enemy, they said.
Ivan, a 32-year-old private, said his unit’s task was simple: “Go in, f—them up, retake what’s ours.”
He said the offensive started well for his unit, which seized a village from the Russians in the early hours of fighting.
But that same day, Monday, he wound up in hospital with a concussion after a teammate fired a rocket launcher a few steps from where he stood.
“The guys are in a fighting mood,” said Ivan, a former construction worker from southwest Ukraine. “They’re moving forward.”
Some Russian troops are fleeing their positions, he said, abandoning equipment and booby-trapping the bodies of dead comrades they leave behind. Ivan showed footage that he said was sent to him by comrades on the front line, appearing to show dead Russian soldiers on the outskirts of a village that he said was seized by Ukrainian forces on Tuesday.
Area controlled by Russia
UKRAINE
Mykolaiv
Inhulets River
Dnipro River
Kherson
UKRAINE
Area of detail
CRIMEA
Source: Institute for the Study of War and the American Enterprise Institute's Critical Threats Project (areas of control)
Ivan said Ukrainian forces had thrust toward Kherson, the regional capital, and were trying to clear villages along the way.
Russian military bloggers who are close to the country’s Defense Ministry have noted another Ukrainian advance, across the Inhulets River to the northeast of Kherson. The Russian Defense Ministry has described Ukraine’s offensive as a failure.
“We’re advancing in some areas and being battered in others,” said Pavlo, a 22-year-old soldier who was concussed in a battle on Tuesday and says he now hears a sound akin to a broken television in his head.
The head of the intensive-care unit where some of the soldiers were being treated said the military warned him of the offensive a week in advance, spurring hopes of imminent victories.
“But when they started bringing in such a large number of wounded, then, honestly, I felt sorry for them and I started wondering if this was worth doing at such a cost,” said the doctor. “I don’t know. There’s no right answer here.”
Ukrainian officials and military analysts have said that Ukrainian losses, even if the offensive is successful, could be high as they are assaulting an entrenched enemy with significant firepower that can quickly chew up troops.
At the intensive-care unit, six servicemen in comas occupied beds in two adjoining wards separated by a thin wall. In one, doctors were fighting to save the life of a 47-year-old armor crewman badly injured when his tank was hit Tuesday, his chest heaving as surgeons performed a tracheotomy in a bid to restore his breathing.
One Ukrainian soldier lay in his bed clutching the Russian bullet that had just been plucked from his body after traveling through his left shoulder and exiting through his pelvis. He was shot as he lay on the ground seeking cover from a Russian attack in a village.
“We had a feeling that we’d be going into battle, that we were planning something big,” the 30-year-old soldier, Petro, said of the days that preceded the offensive as he struggled to speak under the influence of heavy anesthesia. “We all hope the war ends as soon as possible.”
The doctor said he spends some nights on a small couch in his office after more than half his staff stopped coming to work following a Russian rocket attack on the hospital in August. He said he felt on the verge of a breakdown as he has dealt with more soldiers than at any time since the first weeks of the war.
Faced with the influx, doctors are fighting to save the lives of those in critical condition before sending them on to better-equipped hospitals once they are stable.
The head of the intensive-care unit said that on Monday he took in a 27-year-old soldier with a broken leg, concussion, torn lung and a ruptured liver, stomach, colon and bowel. “Head, chest, limbs, stomach, concussions, they come with all kinds of injuries,” he said. “The effect of an explosion damages everything.”
But among the injured, the doctor said he was most struck by their desire to continue fighting as soon as they are physically able.
Ivan, the 32-year-old private, said his concussion on Monday was his third since he was mobilized at the start of Russia’s invasion, and it was only because his commander ordered him evacuated that he ended up at the hospital.
“I want to get back to our guys,” he said, playing down his injuries despite struggling to hear. “I wanted to return the moment I left.”
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