I’m shocked to hear this, shocked.
Germans planned this and probably commanded most of it. It positively rings of Teutonic efficiency.
It's a proxy war between the US and Russia. I don't think the Russians will forget that in the future.
This’ll get the Putinistas hyperventilating. ;)
Heroism of Ukrainians should change NATO’s attitude towards prospect of Ukraine’s membership, which will only strengthen the Alliance – Andriy Yermak at YES meeting
10 September 2022 - 23:30
https://www.president.gov.ua/en/news/geroyizm-ukrayinciv-maye-zminiti-stavlennya-nato-do-perspekt-77673
They arrived in Kupiansk, too, to the north of Izyum. Amazing progress.
Ukraine Troops Reach Railway Hub as Breakthrough Threatens to Turn into Rout (see Kupiansk in the article)
https://www.algemeiner.com/2022/09/10/ukraine-troops-reach-railway-hub-as-breakthrough-threatens-to-turn-into-rout/
“A timelapse of the progress over the first 4 days of Ukraine’s Kharkiv offensive.”
https://twitter.com/War_Mapper/status/1568755355592626176?s=20&t=MXLQNSeLWmxmBefNLKmVRg
So, was Russia caught by surprise? No. They had at least one week’s warning of the impending Ukrainian attack. If you want to believe that Russia’s intelligence service is incompetent or was deceived in this operation, enjoy the fantasy. The Russian planners had a couple of choices. They could have moved their forces into position earlier but that would have tipped off the Ukrainians and west that the planned offensive was compromised.
Alternatively, the Russian planners may have decided to mask their movements and made choices about which villages and cities to defend and which to abandon. If Russia had moved preemptively to reinforce Izyum that would have raised warning flags for the Ukrainian and NATO planners.
I agree with Andrei Martyanov’s take–the Russians knew it was coming and chose to let the Ukrainians flood the zone in order to eventually hit the Ukrainian forces with a massive counter attack. The Ukrainians are no longer in fortified defensive positions and their lines of communication to support the forward troops are now defined precisely. The Ukrainian attack has not destroyed nor disrupted Russia’s air, artillery, rocket and missile assets. Attacking the Ukrainian units is an easier task, not more difficult.
I am not privy to the Russian plan. But what I do know is that the planning process required to deploy the troops and equipment moving into Kharkov was not a panicked response. Hollywood can create the illusion of rapid movement of military troops, but the real world requires alerting units, making sure they are properly supplied and then undertaking the logistic task of moving those units into combat. This means the planning was deliberate, not a crisis response.
NATO E3-Sentry spy plane just made another appearance and is circling andwatching the Kherson region right now from Romanian air space.
Planning via JOPES.
Reported Russian armory hit by something (probly HIMARS) near Kherson.
Russian troops continue to flee on all fronts.
Russian rout continues apace.