High spirits in the Kremlin, mutiny in the army?
– Insiders report plan for second Kyiv storm
Created: 2022-06-08 04:52
By: Patrick Mayer
Moscow is celebrating territorial gains in the Donbass.
Now the Kremlin is supposed to be targeting Kyiv again.
But does the state of the Russian army allow that?
There is talk of mutinies.
But the Ukrainians have also suffered major losses.
Munich/Kyiv – These are bitter numbers.
The Ukrainian General Staff and the British government now estimate Russia's losses in the Ukraine war at more than 30,000 soldiers.
The media project
The Kyiv Independent
and the "Tagesschau" of the ARD recently reported this in unison.
The Ukrainian army calculates that for every fallen Ukrainian there are three Russian soldiers killed.
And yet Moscow's invasion troops in the Donbass have recently made such progress that the Kremlin is said to be preparing new plans for an attack.
According to official Ukrainian figures, more than 95 percent of the Luhansk region is now under Russian control.
None of this information can be independently verified.
Ukraine war: Is Moscow planning a second attack on Kyiv?
Specifically: The news portal
Meduza
reports that the Kremlin is considering a second attack on the capital Kiev with its around 2.8 million inhabitants.
Even more: There is hope in the government of Russia's ruler Vladimir Putin "that a comprehensive victory in Ukraine is possible before the end of the year".
In his report, Meduza
relies on unnamed informants.
It is said to be “two sources close to the Kremlin and another source within the Putin government”.
According to them, the Russian government has defined "minimum and maximum benchmarks for declaring a successful and completed 'military special operation'".
The minimum is the conquest of the Donbass.
War in Ukraine: Russian breakthroughs in Donbass, rocket attacks near Kharkiv
East of the metropolis of Kharkiv, the second largest city with around 1.4 million inhabitants, the counter-offensive by the local armed forces stalled.
According to ZDF, Russia has recaptured several villages.
This coincides with a report by the
SZ
in which a Ukrainian front-line commander describes significant Russian rocket and artillery fire in the region.
He gets the pseudonym Danylo because he doesn't want to be named.
"Hold on until new weapons arrive," is the motto, the lieutenant in territorial defense explains to the German daily newspaper. "We still have remnants of Ukrainian stocks, but for the counteroffensive we need weapons from the West."
According to ZDF, Russian troops have broken through at Popasna and Lyman in the Donbass in the south-east, and the Ukrainian units in Severodonetsk-Lisichansk could be surrounded in the near future.
On top of that.
A Russian offensive is currently underway on the town of Bakhmut, which had a population of around 70,000 before the attack by its eastern neighbor.
Fierce fighting is also going on north-west of Cherson.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyj recently put the losses in Ukraine at up to 100 soldiers killed a day.
At the front: Russian soldiers in Mariupol.
© Uncredited/AP/dpa
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But: is Moscow rejoicing, while the state of its own army does not allow a second assault on Kyiv?
Reports of alleged supply problems, alleged disobeying orders and bitter losses are now plentiful.
At least from the West.
On Monday (May 30), Britain's Ministry of Defense tweeted: "Russia is likely to have suffered devastating casualties in its middle and junior ranks in the conflict."
Ukraine War: New report of significant Russian casualties
According to this, brigade and battalion commanders were at the front, partly because Moscow held them personally responsible for “successes” or defeats.
These casualties could lead to a lack of discipline and low morale among the invading forces.
According to the British Ministry of Defense there are credible reports of isolated mutinies.
According to ZDF, the mobilization of old T-62 tanks should indicate that Russia will soon be using reservists.
According to Meduza
, the goal is a "war of attrition."
In which Moscow would conquer much larger parts of Ukraine?
"The life of a soldier doesn't count for the Kremlin," Lieutenant Danylo explains to the
SZ
: "Russia has more technology, more personnel.
We cannot win a war of attrition."
(pm)
