Ukrainian Soldiers Tell Of High Losses For Little Gains

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by MoA

Yesterday I linked to a fresh NY Times piece about the horrors of the war in Ukraine.

It has a somewhat uplifting headline and the first few paragraphs describe an Ukrainian ‘success’.

Amid the Counterattack’s Deadly Slog, a Glimmer of Success for Ukraine:

Recapturing the village of Staromaiorske was such welcome news for the country that President Volodymyr Zelensky announced it himself. But formidable Russian defenses have stymied progress elsewhere.

The piece is accompanied by this staged photo which shows some trashed uniform on a dirt road with two boots put next to it.


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The line below the picture, which I strongly believe is false, says:

The body of a Russian soldier outside a village in the Zaporizhzhia region of southern Ukraine this month.
Credit… Tyler Hicks/The New York Times

I wonder what the editors thought when they came up with it.

Now onto the first paragraphs of the report:

For 10 days, Ukrainian marines fought street by street and house by house to recapture the southeastern village of Staromaiorske, navigating artillery fire, airstrikes and hundreds of Russian troops.The Russians put up a ferocious defense but that ended on Thursday when they folded and the Ukrainians claimed victory. “Some ran away, some were left behind,” said an assault commander from Ukraine’s 35th Marine Brigade, who uses the call sign Dikyi, which means Wild. “We were taking captives,” he added.

The recapture of Staromaiorske, a small village that is nonetheless critical to Ukraine’s southern strategy, was such a welcome development for Ukraine that President Volodymyr Zelensky announced it himself.

I have bad news for the NY Times readers. The village Staromaiorske (Staromayorskoye in Russian writing) is no longer in Ukrainian hands but in the gray-zone:

Tony @Cyberspec1 – 22:00 UTC · Jul 30, 2023❗️Despite the fact that [Donetsk leader] Pushilin announced the recapture of Staromayorsk, our troops are absent from the village itself. The enemy is knocked out, but there is nowhere to gain a safe foothold.

Russian troops periodically enter the village to organize ambushes. Yesterday, several AFU soldiers were taken prisoner in this way.

There is also video of Russian artillery bombarding the village.

Staromajorske (at the bottom of the map) on June 04 2023

via LiveUAmap – bigger
 

Staromajorske on July 31 2023

via LiveUAmap – bigger
 

Satellite picture of Staromajorske

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After two months of ‘counter offensive’ the frontline south of Velyka Novosilka has moved only some six kilometers south of the original frontline. Starmajorske consist of about 200 houses. Like the other four small villages along the way it has largely been destroyed.

This was not a ‘counter offensive’ but a bloody slog with mediocre results.

The NY Times piece is by Charlotta Gall who at times writes realistic reports from the ground in Ukraine.

After the uplifting start of her piece the reporting becomes grim:

As officials celebrated Ukraine’s progress in Staromaiorske, troops elsewhere on the ground said that Russian defenses and firepower remained formidable and in places impassable.A soldier at a medical post, awaiting evacuation for a concussion, recently described how his battalion had been decimated when it came under Russian artillery and tank fire. His brigade, the 23rd, was one of nine newly formed, Western-trained units prepared and equipped for the counteroffensive. But the brigade, he said, had been thrown into the fight without sufficient artillery support and had been unable to defend themselves against Russian firepower.

In one battle in which his unit took part, Ukrainian soldiers attacked in 10 American-made MaxxPro armored vehicles, but only one came back, he said. He showed photographs of the damaged vehicles, ripped open and burned out, which he said had been hauled back to a repair base. The soldier declined to give his name for fear of getting into trouble with his superiors.

The soldier lost a 22-year-old friend, Stas, in the shelling the day before, he said, adding that in just over a month, his battalion had suffered so many dead and wounded that only 10 men remained at the front line.

Previously that battalion has had some 400 to 500 men.

Next Gall speaks to a soldier from a different unit:

Another soldier, who joined up last year and asked to be identified only by his first name, Oleksiy, said that his unit had taken heavy losses as Russian troops directed artillery fire and aerial bombs onto their positions.“We were shot like on a shooting range,” he said. “A drone was flying above us and correcting the artillery fire.” Their positions were in former Russian positions, hemmed in by minefields, he said, and the Russian forces were able to keep them pinned down and under constant drone surveillance.

Soldiers were running out of ammunition and water but could only sneak in and out of their positions in ones or twos, on foot, when the light was poor just before dawn and at dusk, he said.

And a third case:

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One really can’t help but hate those Washington D.C. politicians who financed and built this Ukrainian Slaughterhouse. America has truly become a thoroughly wicked nation. May Triune God have mercy on us.

Last edited 1 year ago by Chris McMorrow

Putin invaded Ukraine, moron. He’s been continuously bombarding Ukrainian cities and civilian targets for 523 days.

Maybe you should pray for mercy for overlooking that reality. Or tell Him later that it really wasn’t your problem.

Last edited 1 year ago by Greg

And he had every reason for doing so, jackass.

Why? The menace to Russia of Ukrainian Nazis? The horrible insult of Ukraine preferring western democracy to domination by a murderous Russian dictator?

I was rather hoping Putin would fly to Africa and be taken out over international waters by a well-placed missile shot. There would be every reason to do it. Too many Russians and Ukrainians have died because of the evil little bastard’s ambitions.

Unfortunately the mothers, widows, and orphans of the men he’s killed can’t get to him—but there always hope of a Kremlin plot and poison.

And he had every reason for doing so, jackass.

Last edited 1 year ago by Greg

Why? The menace to Russia of Ukrainian Nazis? 

No, due to the violation of the NATO agreement, Minsk I and Minsk II.

You really are a dumass.

How many times does he have to be told, problem is the TV has not told him.

Murderous Russian dictator, you say? I think you are equating Vladimir Putin with Joseph Stalin, Adolf Hitler, or a Pol Pot. Vladimir Putin has the support of nearly 80% of the Russian people — a much higher percentage than any American president in recent history has ever garnered. A “murderous dictator” Vladimir Putin most certainly is not.

As for the notion of the Ukrainian people wanting to become a “Western style democracy” (a false god if ever there was one), that likely could have been possible had the United States “leaders” not been hellbent on incorporating Ukraine into NATO — which those busy-body, ignorant covetous fools most certainly did.

And so, for having financed and built the Ukrainian Slaughterhouse for the purpose of waging an unjust, unlawful proxy war against Russia (they had no constitutional authority to do so)… Zelensky’s congressional clapping seals now have the blood of over 300,000 dead Ukrainian soldiers on their hands, not to mention the hundreds of thousands injured, and millions of people displaced. (Those fat-cat Washington D.C. politicians are a heartless bunch, that’s for sure.)

Though I am no pacifist, that is how I see it, and that is all I have to say about it.

How many Ukrainians and Russians are dead because of Putin’s “Special Military Action?” There was no need for it. Nobody was threatening Russia. Nobody was going to invade Russia. Putin sure as hell wasn’t protecting Russian-speaking Ukrainians; he has methodically reduced their cities and villages to ruins. As for the support of the Russian people—they’re afraid of him. Criticize his invasion and you go to prison, just for the words you speak. He murders political opponents—literally. He requires a full-time army of bodyguards because he’d be killed by his own without them.

People here often tell me Biden is a dictator and America is a police state, while justifying Putin’s actions. I give them the benefit of the doubt. I think they’re crazy, rather than evil. Evil is farther up the right-wing food chain.

Last edited 1 year ago by Greg

And they all have idiot Biden to thank for it.

The left wing is currently castrating children and trafficking them as well.

That’s evil.

The so-called right wing isn’t Right-leaning at all. It’s sober, common Sense having Americans who question their government as they should.

That used to be a trait of the left, which they sadly abandoned as soon as they came into power and became the crazy fundamentalists they claim to fight.

Biden is a dictator. The nation known as America as a democracy ended the day our own federal agencies performed a coup on the steps of the capitol and installed this senile puppet.

You display the usual left as cowardice in the face of nuanced discussion.

No one supports Putin. We’re just telling you that your false umbrage and your very clear hypocrisy isn’t being swallowed by American citizens.

Biden will be remembered in the infamous Halls of fake leaders and horrible chapters in the history of empires.

The left struggles now to write their own history, but it’s just not going their.

Freedom is powerful. Freedom will always win in the end against autocratic powers like those you support and I believe are part of.

Greg we will fight you. I don’t know if you truly understand the consequences of the tyrannical ideas you support.

You’re either a federal agent or truly one of the stupidest people I’ve ever encountered.

Either way, you’re not going to win this one.

I know you think heads of countries just walk where ever without security, but thats not true. Psst Even Joey needs guys with guns guarding him.
The Russians are already building housing https://english.elpais.com/international/2023-01-13/after-months-of-bombing-russia-starts-rebuilding-mariupol.html
You need a better study of evil, the left goes gaga over a movie where little girls are sexualized (Pretty baby) But bad mouths a movie about rescue of trafficked children based on a true story.
TV has you all confused, you say Pizzagate was debunked, and Former ABC News reporter, James Gordon Meek, who bragged about ‘debunking’ evidence of an elite pedophile ring dubbed ‘Pizzagate’ was arrested and pled guilty to child pornography charges.
Where are Epstiens customers? You know he had his properties fully bugged and recorded everything, they have those recordings.
Over 85K children that crossed our southern border are “missing”.
No more rapid DNA testing done at the border, thanks to this admin.

Before you use your holier than thou shit on those you disagree with politically that word is a double edged sword, you have not been taught how to wield a butter knife let alone a sword.

The assholes in Kiev have been murdering, bombing eastern Ukrainians for 9 years, now cant go to church, have elections, no free press, made Ukraine a haven for human trafficking. But hey Putin the most forgiving fo not killing the leader of Wagner, does not carry all the blame, Grahm and McStain were there in 2014 urging on the Nazis, KILL KILL KILL!