zelensky faces strong criticism for russian troops breaking through eastern ukraine's defenses
2024-08-31
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according to a report by the financial times on august 30, after the ukrainian army deployed thousands of soldiers to attack the kursk region of russia, the donetsk region in eastern ukraine was short of troops and the russian army quickly advanced its offensive there. ukrainian president zelensky was strongly criticized by soldiers, ukrainian lawmakers and military analysts.
zelensky's profile picture is from the us media
according to reports, ukraine launched a surprise attack on russia's kursk region on the 6th of this month, hoping that this action would force russia to shift resources to a new front and turn the situation in ukraine's favor. however, the russian army's actions on the strategically important donetsk front this week opened a breakthrough, sparking strong dissatisfaction among critics with the kiev leadership. they believe that deploying thousands of ukrainian soldiers with rich combat experience to the kursk operation has weakened ukraine's position.
the report added that russian troops were approaching the city of pokrovsk in the donetsk region, having taken control of several nearby towns this week and forced outnumbered ukrainian forces to retreat from prepared defensive positions.
the financial times quoted the ukrainian analytical agency "frontelligence insight" as saying that the city of pokrovsk is one of the two key railway and road hubs in the donetsk region, and its loss will threaten the ukrainian army's logistics support in the entire region.
the report goes on to quote a military analyst as saying that the current situation on the eastern edge of pokrovsk is "a complete defense failure." he believes that this is "not the fault of ordinary soldiers" and "the problem lies with those who make decisions for these soldiers." the financial times explained that he was referring to the ukrainian leadership.
the report said that some soldiers in the region were also worried about the defense situation around pokrovsk. a ukrainian soldier named zhenya posted on the social media platform x criticizing the ukrainian military command structure, saying that it had systemic mistakes and was not responding well to the changing battlefield situation. "to be honest, i have never seen anything like this. everything collapsed so quickly," he warned, "pokrovsk will fall much faster than bakhmut."
according to reuters, ukrainian armed forces commander-in-chief serski said on august 27 that the ukrainian armed forces' offensive in russia's kursk region is still advancing, but he also warned that russia is gathering troops on the pokrovsk front in the donetsk region, and the russian army has been advancing the offensive in the region, "the situation is quite difficult." serski also revealed that russia is currently strengthening its troops on the pokrovsk front.
according to a report by the global times on august 29, ukraine also claimed to have achieved some results. according to al jazeera, since ukraine launched an offensive against russia's kursk region on august 6, ukraine claimed to have captured 594 russian soldiers and controlled 1,294 square kilometers of land and 100 settlements. zelensky said that the ukrainian military recently successfully tested domestic ballistic missiles, but did not disclose more details. according to the russian newspaper izvestia, zelensky said that western f-16 fighter jets aiding ukraine have participated in the war and shot down some incoming russian drones and missiles. he called on western allies to provide more weapons and equipment and lift restrictions on striking targets deep into russian territory. ukraine is also further expanding its military.
xinhua news agency said that according to the russian ministry of defense's report on august 30, ukraine has lost more than 7,800 military personnel, 75 tanks and 507 armored vehicles in the fighting in the kursk region. in the past 24 hours, the russian army repelled five attacks by ukrainian commandos in the kursk region, and the ukrainian armed forces lost more than 380 military personnel, 1 tank and 21 armored vehicles.
