Posted on 11/10/2022 3:14:22 AM PST by dennisw
WASHINGTON (AP) — Russia's announced retreat from Kherson, a regional capital in southern Ukraine that it seized early in the war, and a potential stalemate in fighting over the winter could provide both countries an opportunity to negotiate peace, Army Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Wednesday.
He said as many as 40,000 Ukrainian civilians and “well over" 100,000 Russian soldiers have been killed or wounded in the war, now in its ninth month. “Same thing probably on the Ukrainian side," Milley added.
“There has been a tremendous amount of suffering, human suffering,” he said at The Economic Club of New York.
Milley, the highest-ranking U.S. military officer, said Russia had amassed 20,000 to 30,000 troops in Kherson and a full retreat could take several weeks.
“The initial indicators are they are in fact doing it. They made the public announcement they’re doing it. I believe they’re doing it in order to preserve their force to reestablish defensive lines south of the (Dnieper) river, but that remains to be seen” he said.
Milley said it’s possible the Russians will use the retreat to reset their troops for a spring offensive, but “there’s also an opportunity here, a window of opportunity for negotiation."
But for negotiations to have a chance, both Russia and Ukraine would have to reach a “mutual recognition” that a military victory “is maybe not achievable through military means, and therefore you need to turn to other means,” Milley said, citing the end of World War I as an example.
(Excerpt) Read more at msn.com ...
And the Russian military doesn’t reclaim the bodies to save from having to make life insurance payments.
Yeah, that’s going over well with the troops too. Added to sparse rations, no spare winter clothing and rusted, antique weapons.
“Your country Officer!” /Zhivago reference.
besides the battlefield losses, Russia has lost in other areas too
Russian military equipment is now seen as inferior
Russia is no longer seen as a “peaceful country”
Russian economy is currently losing $10 billion every week from lost gas sales ... those losses will double on Dec. 5th, when Europe cuts off all Russian oil
Russia is getting poorer and more isolated every day that this unnecessary war drags on
How is it possible to lose 100k out of 160k, and still have 30k to withdraw from one place alone?
MSN...so many things they reported erroneosly. I am NOW a firm believer that the US has a propaganda machine, as well as the Ukrainians, and for sure the Russians. I believe about 20% of what I read. I prefer people ON site. My friends living in the Ukraine says we are being LIED to, just like the lies of the JAB and the mouth covers. Where is Walter Cronkite when we need him? Or the Paul Harveys.
I wonder if Putin saw Russia’s serious decline and thought this Ukranian move was a way to regaine strength.
If it was I suspect it is failing and will now just accelerate the country’s demise.
I fear things will get bad enough they will try the “Dead Hand” manuvre in a hail mary pass moment.
The last thing Zelensky wants is peace. He needs to keep the Ukraine bringing in the donations. He has to make it look like he’s not losing. He’s burning through the last of his soldiers to get the optics to frantically claim to be winning if only people would donate more.
The Russians withdrew from the area for now to avoid being cut off and to avoid civilian casualties because Zelensky is using them as props and cannon fodder.
Russians are expected to mount an offensive but the very deep soil in the region is not yet frozen and able to support the weight of tanks. It won’t freeze until mid-December and Putin is not likely to wait that long.
Zelensky only poses for Peace interviews when he wants attention and money. His current terms are for Russia to give him annexed areas and leave. Those are not concessions of peace deals - they are demands meant to insure there is no peace deal. This way he gets his name in the news for being willing to discuss peace deals but later can say Putin unreasonably refused to make peace. It’s all deep state posturing ont he part of Zelensky that is meant to insure Biden has ‘cover’ to keep giving him billions. This way Biden can say, “Hey peace talks are underway - I’ll just send them more millions/billions to ensure peace and protect against humanitarian crisis.
Then Biden pockets his cut, the spoils are distributed among other coup participants and Putin is blamed for everything.
This is a good video explaining some of this.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KjSqLjHNNjk
Well if the US says so it must be true... /s
I don't know where Walter is but his ghost is haunting all of us with the legacy of his inaccurate reporting about the 1968 Tet Offensive. Cronkite got that entirely wrong, casting it as a defeat when in military terms it was a victory, with the result, as Lyndon Johnson said, "if we have lost Walter Cronkite we have lost the country."
Cronkite was an insidious leftist who was a television artist who conned the mass of the American people.
the original Russian plan was to conquer Ukraine quickly (3-4 weeks)
Zelensky’s Government would flee in terror when Russia invaded, causing troop morale to collapse - making for an easy, short war that could be wrapped up before Western governments could organize any opposition
but the Ukrainian Government didn’t run, the troop morale didn’t collapse, and the Ukrainian Army fought back hard and stopped the Russian advance
at that point, Putin should have realized he couldn’t win militarily and called it quits, Western governments were already organizing sanctions ... but being a insecure warmongering dictator like Hitler, he just couldn’t stop and admit defeat
so we have the stalemate you see today
The last thing Russia wants is peace
and Russia is “avoiding civilian casualties”? seriously??
LOL, they deliberately bomb apartment buildings and shopping centers, dummy
I’m in contact with Ukrainian soldiers so I know how completely wrong you are. You sure like spreading Putin’ lies. Fortunately, the criminal Hammer and Sickle wavers are being pushed back.
What are they going to give Putin as a reward for his aggression? The U.S. has done things in the past that were detrimental to Ukraine’s security. Is this going to be a repeat?
Let’s assume this is true, who knows, but what about the casualties on the Ukrainian Side.
If you assume Ukraine has suffered a similar number of casualties, in a battle of attrition I don’t see how Ukraine and afford to lose 100k people and continue to fight as this war drags on.
What’s happening in Ukraine is a complete disaster, thousands of lives are being lost with no end in sight, we need to get over this unending desire to punish Russia, we can continue to support Ukraine but someone needs to step in Washington or elsewhere and say this has to stop, before potentially millions of lives are lost of something really pointless. Just my opinion.
Mobilization.
I was convinced of that, when I was in Vietnam.
“100,000 Russian soldiers have been killed or wounded in the war”
I DO NOT believe that number. Period.
Mobilization has just started, not even 25% made it to the front.
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