I think some of this has to do with Ukraine's counter-offensive in Kupyansk. It's been costly. There have also been some counter-attacks in the Konstantinovka area where Ukraine has lost vehicles, and of course the costly attempt to push back into Pokrovsk spearheaded by the newly delivered Australian M1s.
Yes, of course. This has been happening through out this year though and this is not a recent uptick in UA losses. Not only the reported losses have been converging for both sides, the Ukrainian losses have often been higher ever since and post the end of the Kursk adventures. I believe I cited a few posts of Janovsky (of Oryx), as well as Naalsio.(also of Oryx, but a separate count) over the past several months showing the exact same trend. The December summary by Perpetua I cited in my previous post clearly debunks the usual counterargument that neither of the aforementioned individuals/teams count civilian vehicles mostly used in attacks by Russians, so all is good and Ukrainians are killing Russians by buckets and saving their own man.
This uptick seems to line up rather well with the settlement of understanding that the loss of the US support could be permanent and the desire to show that Ukraine “still has the cards”. A final push to show Trump that they are capable to counterattack and take territory - in other words, fight back. I am just wondering what is going to happen next. Counterattacks in Pokrovsk, Huliaipole, etc are either much less fruitful or a complete failure. We shall see. Option b) in my previous post is certainly my understanding of the situation.
What also interests me, and why I could be completely wrong, is that this current “maximum” push certainly diminishes the future ability to withstand the Russian attacks - I do not believe this is up for debate, but a certainty. I would understand the logic behind it if the end to war was in sight and actual workable proposals were made by Ukraine. But there aren’t! What is proposed is guaranteed to be rejected because it makes no sense to begin with (neither does it look like an honest effort). The constant talk is that Russia wants to continue the war until capitulation of Ukraine. The Ukrainian (and Euro) reaction, however, is let’s prove it to be right. Then why waste all these resources if one plans to continue fighting and one’s position was already precarious to begin with. Notable is also the absence of loud Euro statements post the loan agreement, while work in tandem is pretty clear: nearly immediate bankruptcy averted -> release the plan (not before, indicating possible existing contingencies) -> ??? Zelesnky declares that the deal is almost done (peace deal might be signed before the new year!), Trump
says that Zelesnky has nothing until Trump himself approves it, while Russians say that they are working with the Americans on the initial 28-point plan, which is not to their satisfaction either. While I realize we lack a lot of information here, but what we have been privileged to seeing clearly indicates a complete cluster****.
In the meantime, Putin said that the benefit of territorial swaps is quickly approaching zero for Russia. This is an obvious development (that I talked about previously) and while just words at this point, it appears that we are heading toward exactly that scenario months from now. I would translate it as “Judging by the tempo we are observing at the line of contact, our interest in the withdrawal of the Ukrainian forces from the territories they are holding for now is effectively approaching zero”:
Anyway, I think we will see what happens here shortly - in a few days, a couple of weeks, there should be more clarity. Or not?
EDIT: Ukraine's defenses in Gulyaypole seem to have collapsed. Russia is still mopping up but the town should be theirs within a day or two. This comes as Russia's push across the Gaychur expands in two bridgeheads, that are nonetheless so close together they will soon form one large one.
It looks like “she is gone”. And so is Rodynske. There were also a few geolocations of Russians in the centre of Lyman (presumably DRGs) and people asking if any troops were rotated from there to Kupyansk, as they were from other directions.
Interesting bit about Hulyaipole, some damage control took place just the other day, after the video appeared featuring 3 Russian troops being filmed in (now confirmed) UA command room they had captured with maps, a laptop, a smartphone (without password protection), a tablet, a bunch of documents, etc - basically a potential goldmine for the Russian intel from the looks of it. The explanation provided by Filatov, the commander of the 1st assault regiment (a man close to Syrsky, reportedly), via Google translate, uneddited:
The command post (KSP) of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in Gulyaipol, Zaporizhzhia region, was abandoned without a fight due to the panic of the personnel and the negligent actions of the commanders, despite the fact that an infiltrated group of only three Russian servicemen entered the city, the commander of the first separate assault regiment (1 OSHP) reported in a comment to Suspilny. He also emphasized that the Russian military did not have enough reinforcements, such as artillery or drone support (UBAVs).
He also said that the three Russian dudes that took the command post were so far from the line of contact that they did not have any comms because what they had was out of reach and, hence, acted on their own accord. Imagine talking this nonsense and being completely serious. He said that the three Russians heard the noise of the generator and decided to act. And so on.
Consider that if what he is saying is true (I am sure it isn’t), the state, be it mental or otherwise, of the Ukrainian forces on the frontline… But at least they now have Kupiansk that they expect Russians to withdraw from anyway. Tragicomedy continues.
Breaking news!!! Flamingos now outperform Tomahawks and are striking targets deep inside Russia!
Perhaps, the funniest part about that post is that it says right in that video that it was made with AI.
More breaking news!!! A Ukrainian UGV belonging to the Azov defends a frontline position for 45 days all by itself, killing a bucket of Russians in the process!
A Ukrainian ground combat drone defended a frontline position for 45 days, using machine-gun fire to thwart Russian advances without infantry support.
united24media.com
Perhaps, this guy is right:
Mostly free! Hurry!
I actually used to follow this fella (a real professor of Strategic Studies!), but stopped due to the amount of nonsense he is spitting. The guy writes books too (I can imagine reading one). The amount of feedback he received from reasonable (and even otherwise) people about this article was quite a bit and very quickly too. I would post some for the laughs, but will restrain myself.