WAR IN UKRAINE: September 13, 2022
LATEST DEVELOPMENTS: Day 202
Ukrainian troops retook a wide swath of territory from Russia on Monday, pushing all the way back to the northeastern border in some places, and claimed to have captured many Russian soldiers as part of a lightning advance that forced Moscow to make a hasty retreat. A spokesperson for Ukrainian military intelligence said Russian troops were surrendering en masse as "they understand the hopelessness of their situation." A Ukrainian presidential adviser said there were so many prisoners of war that the country was running out of space to accommodate them. As blue-and-yellow Ukrainian flags fluttered over newly liberated towns, the Ukrainian military said it had freed more than 20 settlements in 24 hours. In recent days, Kyiv's forces have captured territory at least twice the size of greater London, according to the British Defence Ministry - AP
President Zelensky says Ukrainian forces have liberated 6,000 square kilometres from Russia. Kyiv continues to plead for more weapons from West to press ahead. One analyst said Russian forces were retreating in huge numbers. Kremlin spokesperson Dimitri Peskov refused to say whether Russian President Vladimir Putin still had confidence in his military leaders.
Russia-imposed official Vitaly Ganchev said earlier on September 12 on Russia’s state-run Rossiya 24 that the Ukrainian military outnumbered Russian forces by eight -to-one during the Ukrainian counteroffensive in the region that began last week. He said that "the situation is becoming more difficult by the hour," adding that the border with Russia's Belgorod region was now closed.
“The Ukrainian army has taken advantage of the relocation of the bulk of the Russian forces to the south and is trying to direct the course of the war, excelling in maneuver and showing great ingenuity,” Mykola Sunhurovskyi, an expert with the Kyiv-based Razumkov Centre, told the Associated Press.
As I told Canada’s Corus radio network Monday evening, the ongoing counter-offensive could mark a major turning point of the war and comes exactly at the same time so western governments could be facing public pressure to deal with rising energy bills and other cost of living issues. The fact that around 70,000 people turned out in Prague over the weekend to protest rising energy bills and sanctions imposed on Russia is cause for concern. While the current humiliating setback isn’t expected to cause immediate destabilization in the Kremlin, if the battlefield losses mount it could set in motion a chain reaction that could threaten President Putin’s grip on power. But that is another reason to fear that an unhinged Russian president could resort to the use of tactical nuclear weapons or biological and/or chemical weapons. Either way, his “special military operation’ was a huge miscalculation for Russia; it drew the curtain back on how ill-prepared the Russian Armed Forces were to wage battle.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine believes that all IAEA efforts must be directed toward achieving de-occupation, and demilitarization of the occupied Zaporizhia Nuclear Power Plant, as well as ensuring that Ukraine regains control of the facility. That’s according to MFA Ukraine’s spokesperson Oleg Nikolenko. “The only way to ensure the nuclear safety and security of the Zaporizhzhia power plant is its de-occupation, demilitarization and return to Ukrainian control. All IAEA efforts must be focused on achieving this goal. Anything short of this won’t make Russia stop its dangerous game,” Nikolenko tweeted on Monday, September 12.
The former chief of the directorate of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) in the eastern region of Kharkiv, Roman Dudin, has reportedly been detained on a charge of high treason - RFE/RL
Required reading…
Russia may not survive Putin’s disastrous decision to invade Ukraine
Russia’s war in Ukraine has demonstrated that the Kremlin does not respect the fundamentals of international law or the sanctity of international borders. This imperialistic foreign policy may soon rebound on Russia itself. Russia’s territorial integrity looks set to become increasingly disputed by the country’s numerous internal republics and regions as the disastrous invasion of Ukraine serves as a catalyst for imperial collapse.
Read the full Atlantic Council analysis here