Putin refused to retreat from Kherson
As the publication notes, the withdrawal from Kherson will allow the Russian military to retreat behind the Dnipro in an organized manner, preserving the equipment and saving the lives of the soldiers. But such a retreat would be another humiliating public admission of Putin’s defeat in the war and would give Ukraine its second major victory in a month.
Kherson was the first major city captured by the Russians during the initial invasion, and remained the only regional center controlled by Moscow.
The NYT publication says that Putin has become a more public face of the war, focusing on victory at any cost, announcing bounties for 300,000 civilians. this month, Moscow showed that it has too few troops to continue the offensive, it lacks high-tech, high-precision weapons, and it cannot gain dominance in the skies over Ukraine.
But U.S. officials briefed on the unclassified intelligence said Putin was assuming an even more important role in the war, including telling commanders that strategic decisions on the ground should be made by him. Although Putin accepted some of the military command’s recommendations, including the mobilization of the civilian population, his involvement created tensions.
Officials said Putin’s refusal to withdraw troops from Kherson has also led to lower morale among Russian troops, who have been cut off much more from their supply lines and who appear to believe they may find themselves in a tough position against Ukrainian forces.
“The situation in Ukraine is clearly dynamic,” the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Mark A. Milley, said on Friday. But he warned that there is still a “long way to go”.
According to American officials, Putin’s disagreements about the front line in Kherson show that the most critical is the war in southern Ukraine on both sides. Despite Ukraine’s recent successes in the northeast, the area around Kherson is a successful theater of war, with serious strategic implications for Kyiv and Moscow.
Some US officials have said they see problems for the Russian military in the southern theater of operations. a senior US official said this week that Ukraine is on track to repeat the southern successes its forces achieved in a blitzkrieg offensive in the northeast earlier this month. If Ukraine pushes back Russian troops even further, Putin’s hard-fought land bridge to Crimea could be in jeopardy, U.S. officials say.
The withdrawal of troops from Kherson is only the latest disagreement between Mr. Putin and his high command. According to US officials, senior Russian officers repeatedly questioned early plans for the war, especially its initial phase, which called for a quick strike on Kiev, the capital of Ukraine. According to American officials, Russian officers believed that Putin was going to war with insufficient troops and weapons.
The concerns of Russian officers were justified, and after the defeat of the Russian army at Kiev, Putin relaxed his control over military planning. According to US officials, he allowed senior generals to develop a new strategy focused on massive artillery fire. The new strategy was in fact an exhausting military one by definition, which played into the hands of the Russian army and allowed the army to advance in the east of Ukraine.
Ever since Putin ordered his commanders to continue fighting in Kherson, the Russian military has been trying to stop the Ukrainian advance there. Last week, the Russians blew up a dam on the Ingulets River to set up the current counteroffensive.
But Ukrainian strikes blew up crossings across the Dnieper, largely cutting off Russian forces from their supply routes on the other side. According to Ukrainian officials, the Russians had to use pontoon bridges to cross the river only to see them come under fire from Ukrainian forces. “They have units that, if the Ukrainians break through, will be cut off and surrounded,” said Seth J. Jones, senior vice president of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.