WESTERN PERSPECTIVE
Moscow ordered troops to withdraw from near the strategic southern Ukrainian city of Kherson in a major setback as a top U.S. general estimated Russia has suffered more than 100,000 killed or wounded since invading its neighbour in February.
Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu on Wednesday announced Russian forces would retreat from the west bank of the Dnipro River near Kherson in what could be a turning point in the war.
Ukraine reacted with caution, noting some Russian forces remained in Kherson and reinforcements were being sent to the region.
"They are moving out but not as much as would be taking place if it was a full pullout or regrouping," Oleksiy Arestovych, adviser to President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said in a video posted online on Wednesday night.
Russian forces were destroying bridges as they left and mining roads, Arestovych said.
"For the moment, we don't know their intentions - will they engage in fighting with us and will they try to hold the city of Kherson? They are moving very slowly," he said.
Kherson city was the only regional capital Russia captured after the invasion and it has been the focus of a Ukrainian counter-offensive. The city controls the only land route to the Crimea peninsula that Russia annexed in 2014 and the mouth of the Dnipro river that bisects Ukraine.
Russian-installed officials have been evacuating tens of thousands of civilians from Kherson in recent weeks.
Ukrainian military analyst Yuri Butusov said the Ukrainian army's use of U.S.-supplied high mobility artillery rocket systems (HIMARS) had made Dnipro river crossings so dangerous that "the defence of Russian positions here has become impossible".
"But let's be clear. The Russian forces will take up defensive positions and it will be able to carry out new attacks. It will be able to maintain its positions on the east bank for a time," Butusiov said in a YouTube video.
CASUALTIES
America's top general estimated on Wednesday that Russia's military had suffered more than 100,000 of its soldiers killed or wounded, and added Kyiv's armed forces "probably" suffered a similar level of casualties. About 40,000 Ukrainian civilians were also probably killed, he said.
The estimates could not be independently confirmed by Reuters. General Mark Milley, speaking to the Economic Club in New York, did not say how he calculated those estimates.
Milley said initial indicators suggested Russia was following through with its withdrawal from Kherson. But he cautioned that it could take time to complete.
In televised comments, Russian General Sergei Surovikin, in overall command of the war, reported to Shoigu that it was no longer possible to supply Kherson city. He said he proposed to take up defensive lines on the eastern bank of the Dnipro River.
RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE
Actions taken by Washington and other “unfriendly nations” – as well as transnational corporations, certain NGOs and media outlets – threaten Russia’s traditional values, President Vladimir Putin said in a decree on Wednesday. The new document sets the principles of protecting and preserving the values Russia considers the basis for “defending and strengthening its sovereignty” as well as “preserving the people of Russia and developing their human potential.”
Reliance on its traditional values stemming from Russia’s cultural and historical experience is what helps the nation to effectively face new challenges and threats while keeping its identity intact, the decree said. Among the values listed in the document are life, human dignity, human rights, patriotism, high moral ideals, close-knit traditional family, historical memory, continuity of generations, as well as unity of all peoples living on the territory of Russia.
The document also says that all major religions – including Christianity, Islam, Buddhism and Judaism – had a “profound impact” on the development of Russia’s traditional values, shared by both believers and atheists.
Putin’s new policy is aimed at “preserving and strengthening traditional values… through generations,” as well as “countering the spread of destructive ideologies.” As examples of such ideologies, which are “alien to the people of Russia,” the document lists the “cult of egoism, impunity and amorality,” the “denial of patriotism and family values,” and LGBTQ+ propaganda.
*On November 8, Russia claimed its air defense units shot down a Ukrainian Su-25 ground attack plane and intercepted 17 HIMARS and Olkha rockets.
According to Lieutenant-General Igor Konashenkov, spokesman for the defense ministry, an air defense system in the Russian-backed self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic shot down a Ukrainian Su-25 aircraft near the town of Ugledar.
Konashenkov added that the Russian air defense units also intercepted the 17 rockets of HIMARS and Olkha multiple-launch rocket systems in the Donetsk People’s Republic and Kherson Region.
He stated that Russian air defense systems eliminated seven unmanned aerial vehicles and thwarted an assault by a Ukrainian motorized infantry battalion in the Kupyansk area within 24 hours.
The Russian Defense Ministry also noted that the Ukrainian military had lost around 160 personnel in the Kupyansk region in the last 24 hours, as well as two tanks, three infantry fighting vehicles, and two motor vehicles.
Additionally, the Russian Aerospace Forces gunned down a Ukrainian Air Force Mi-24 helicopter close to the settlement of Novovoskresenskoye in the Kherson Region. Besides that, the Ministry claimed to have destroyed the Ukrainian military’s air defense systems.
Russian troops destroyed a radar for a Ukrainian S-300 anti-aircraft missile system in Pervomayskoye in the Mykolaiv Region. The general also said that Russian forces destroyed a Ukrainian Buk-M1 surface-to-air missile system near the town of Visunsk in the Mykolaiv Region.
Reuters/RT/Eurasian Times
