Russia takes two more villages in their offensive in Ukraine.

 

A Russian T-80 firing in Avdiivka. Fox News/Russian Defense Ministry

Russia has taken two more villages in their offensive in Eastern Ukraine. Fox News. Russia has taken the villages of Vovche and Prohres, front line villages that were near the captured city of Avdiivka. Ukrainian sources admit that the Russians used a large number of troops to make the push. A local commander blamed the loss on a lack of weapons, poorly trained troops, a lack of officer leadership and low morale for the defeat. Russia has developed new tactics that are working on the battlefield, including major airstrikes using glide bombs. 

My Comment:

The loss of these two villages isn't that significant in the big scheme of things but it does show that Russia is continuing their advance and I wanted an excuse to talk about the Ukraine war regardless. This attack has captured two front line villages that make up defenses of Ukraine and they are not the only examples of this happening. 

I think it's a good example of how the Kharkov offensive succeeded, despite sputtering out. The attack was a feint used to draw troops away from the eastern front near Donetsk and in that way it worked. Russia was probably pleased that Ukraine rushed reserves to that front along with troops that might have better served in plugging the holes on the Donetsk front. Though the Russians probably wished they had advanced a bit further in the Kharkov direction, it was still a successful feint. 

Ukraine is having a major amount of difficulty holding on to these villages. The Ukrainian commander was right, they are having problems with poor troops, bad officers, low morale and a lack of weapons. None of these problems are really fixable at this point and will get worse with time. The Ukrainians are reduced to sending barely trained conscripts into battle to try and plug holes and that is why so many of them are dying. 

The Russians aren't playing around anymore either. The article also mentioned that they have been targeting Ukraine's power generation and they honestly don't have much left. They have some power from domestic plants and still get power from Europe but that is only because Russia allows them. Supposedly even Putin doesn't want the humanitarian disaster that would result in completely cutting off Ukraine's power. Many people would die over the winter and it seems Russia wants to avoid that despite the obvious military advantage it would give them. 

The media is mostly ignoring Ukraine, probably because of the election. Some of that is the typical occurrence of big stories being ignored during the election season, the Venezuela election and the potential war between Israel and Hezbollah are being ignored as well. Indeed, that's why I have written about all three stories this week. 

But much of it is because the media doesn't want to hurt Kamala Harris with a revelation that the war in Ukraine is not going well. It's very clear now that Ukraine can't win and the real question is if the war ends with a total Russian victory or a negotiated settlement. But to admit that would be admitting that the entire Ukraine adventure was a mistake and that we have wasted billions of dollars and the lives of thousands of Russians and Ukrainians