Putin’s invasion goes into reverse: ‘Severely undermanned and poorly trained’ Russian units are forced on to the defensive across the front-line in Ukraine
- Russia has stopped advancing across almost the entire Ukraine front line
- ‘Undermanned and poorly trained’ units forced on to defensive, MoD says
- Putin trying to plug gaps with conscripts, but units not suitable for attacking
- Meanwhile Ukraine is advancing in both north and south as invasion reverses
Russia has largely given up attacking Ukraine and has been forced on to the defensive after Putin’s military got mauled by Kyiv’s armies.
Severely undermanned and poorly trained Russian units have stopped advancing across most of the front line in the last six weeks, British intelligence said today.
In Kherson, companies of soldiers which should consist of 100 men were fighting with just six to eight troops each, Ministry of Defence analysts added.
While Putin is attempting to bolster these units with conscripted troops, Russia is unlikely to be able to resume its offensive in the near future.
Russian troops have been forced on to the defensive across almost the entire frontline in Ukraine after Putin’s army was mauled, British intelligence says
Meanwhile, Ukrainian forces are advancing in both the north and south of the country – pushing east from Kharkiv into Luhansk and advancing towards Kherson.
Earlier this week, it had appeared that Russia was preparing to withdraw from Kherson city but Ukraine now believes Putin is actually reinforcing it.
Kyrylo Budanov, head of Ukraine’s military intelligence service, said earlier this week that Russia has been evacuating civilians but is moving military reinforcements into urban areas, preparing defences, and plans to fight for the city.
He added that the evacuation and talk of a retreat by Russia’s top commander may have been an effort to lure Ukraine into a costly urban battle.
In its Friday update, British intelligence wrote: ‘Russia has likely augmented some of its units [in Kherson] with mobilised reservists. However, this is from an extremely low level of manning.
‘In September, Russian officers described companies in the Kherson sector as consisting of between six and eight men each. Companies should deploy with around 100 personnel.
‘In the last six weeks there has been a clear move from Russian ground forces to transition to a long-term, defensive posture on most areas of the front line in Ukraine.
‘This is likely due to a more realistic assessment that the severely undermanned, poorly trained force in Ukraine is currently only capable of defensive operations.
‘Even if Russia succeeds in consolidating long-term defensive lines in Ukraine, its operational design will remain vulnerable.
‘To regain the initiative, it will need to regenerate higher quality, mobile forces which are capable of dynamically countering Ukrainian breakthroughs and conducting their own large-scale offensive operations.’
The war in Ukraine is now grinding into its ninth month with Kyiv on the front foot and Putin nowhere near achieving his aims.
Though the official purpose of the invasion remains the ‘liberation’ of the eastern Donbas region, according to Putin, in reality his troops have stopped advancing almost everywhere besides the town of Bakhmut, in Donetsk.
Meanwhile they are being pushed back in the northern Kharkiv region and southern region of Kherson – the latter of which Putin has declared to be part of Russia.
A Ukrainian serviceman inspects a turret of a destroyed Russian T-72 tank near a frontline, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, in Mykolaiv region, Ukraine
That has sparked fears he could resort to nukes, after he said he would use ‘all available means’ to defend the territory.
It comes after Moscow alleged that Ukraine is preparing to detonate a so-called ‘dirty bomb’ on its territory, meaning a conventional explosive laced with radioactive material to cause contamination.
The UN’s atomic watchdog has now been dispatched to two areas of Ukraine where Putin alleges the bomb is being prepared – at Kyiv’s insistence – as President Volodymyr Zelensky and his allies dismiss the claims as fiction.
Instead, they say Russia may be preparing the ground to use one of its own nukes as a pretext for escalating the conflict.
US President Joe Biden, asked about Putin’s assertion he would never use nukes in Ukraine, responded last night: ‘Why does he keep talking about it?
‘Why is he talking about the ability to use a tactical nuclear weapon? He’s been very dangerous in how he’s approached this and he should just get out.
‘He can end this all, get out of Ukraine.’
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