Ukraine continues to advance towards Melitopol after overcoming Russian defenses in the south. According to a report by the Institute for the Study of War, Russian units have now sent a call for help. This reports the German news website n-tv.de.
Specifically, the ISW reports an act of desperation by Russian officers of the 58th Army. Because their situation in the Zaporizhzhya oblast was deteriorating drastically, the soldiers had turned to their deposed commander, Major General Ivan Popov, for help. ISW refers to information from an insider. Popov had only been dismissed at the beginning of July because he had wanted to bypass the army leadership in Moscow and report difficulties in southern Ukraine directly to Russian President Vladimir Putin. In view of these attempts, the Institute for the Study of War assumes that the new commanders on this front have not yet been able to gain the trust of their subordinates.
Image: Kremlin.ru, Vladimir Putin (2022-12-16), CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons (image size modified)
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