Remarkable advances have been made by Ukraine on the eastern bank of the Dnipro River. This is causing increasing concern, especially among Russian military bloggers.
These bloggers complain that even the wounded must fight and that “our own inertia” is the “main enemy at the front.” The Russian Ministry of Defense is now responding to this. Officials are apparently trying to downplay the “hysteria” over the Ukrainian operations on the eastern bank of the Dnipro. This was reported by n-tv.de, citing the Institute for the Study of War (ISW). Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu, in a speech at his ministry, claimed that Russian forces had thwarted all Ukrainian attempts to conduct successful “amphibious operations towards Kherson,” inflicting “colossal” losses on Ukrainian forces
According to ISW, the statement by the Russian defense minister is most likely a response to concerns expressed by some Russian military bloggers about Russia’s inability to repel Ukrainian attacks on the eastern bank of the Dnipro. However, the US think tank does not believe that Shoigu’s statements will help to calm the growing complaints in Russia.
Image: Kremlin.ru, CC BY 4.0, Vladimir Putin with Sergey Shoigu (2017-12-07).jpg, via Wikimedia Commons (image size modified)