Moscow Times: Russia Claims Capture of Eastern Ukraine’s Maryinka
Russia said Monday that its forces have captured Maryinka, a town in eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk region that has been all but destroyed during Moscow’s invasion.
“The assault detachment of the ‘South’ grouping completely liberated the settlement of Maryinka today,” Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu told President Vladimir Putin in a televised meeting.
Kyiv has not yet commented on Moscow’s claim.
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Update: Russia says seized town of Maryinka in eastern Ukraine (AFP)
WNU Editor: This is a strategic military victory for Russia. And while Ukraine is denying these Russian claims .... Military: Battle for Marinka continues (The Kyiv Independent), Russian TV is broadcasting within the town .... WATCH RT inside liberated key town in Donbass (RT).
3 comments:
I don't know how strategic it is to take months to do it giving Ukraine time to set up more defenses
They do it that way to lessen their casualties
Despite being located on the frontlines, it took the Russians 22 months to take the small town of Marinka for an intrusion of 3km along a very narrow front. Despite holding 70% of the town in June, it took them another seven months to get the other 30%. Meanwhile the Ukrainians have new frontlines just outside of town and still have skirmishers in the town. No Ukrainian forces were trapped. There has been no breakthrough nor any likely one in the future. How is this a "strategic military victory"? It is a minor tactical success gained at huge cost (like all of Russia's advances in 2023). And I think this is the second or third time WNU Editor has announced this.
Obviously Ukraine would rather have kept the town, but this is a fairly minor loss. Ukraine is prioritizing minimizing their losses while inflicting disproportionate losses on Russia. Putin is prioritizing making any territorial gains, no matter ow inconsequential, at the expense of enormous casualties and the long term harm on future Russian combat power.
In just the last three months, Russia has lost 75k dead according to Ukrainian estimates. Even if you discount that by a lot due to overestimation, whatever number you come up with is still an enormous figure. If this keeps up, total Russian dead will reach 400k by the end of the war's second year on February 22, 2024.
Meanwhile in more important events, Russia lost four SU-34s in 3 days. Russia has cancelled air support around Kherson as a result as it tries to figure out what happened. Ukrainian air defense has just improved and that is before they get F-16s. Despite having greater number of planes and air defenses, Russia has only managed to achieve air parity with Ukraine. But they did have an edge on the narrow edge of the frontlines. It's now likely that edge has been lost, and the possibility opens up that Ukraine may gain a narrow edge instead in 2024. If so, this would repeat the gain Ukraine made in artillery over Russia in 2023. It's a far greater importance than the fall of Maryinka.
Chris
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