Moscow’s state-run TV outlet made a rare admission of battlefield losses Friday, with an acknowledgment that Ukraine had achieved a “substantial victory” in breaking through Russian lines this week.
“The very fact of a breach of our defenses is already a substantial victory for the Ukrainian armed forces,” Vitaly Ganchev, the head of Russia’s occupation forces in the Kharkiv province, said on Russian state TV.
“The enemy is being delayed as much as possible, but several settlements have already come under the control of Ukrainian armed formations.”
Checked Is this some kind of ruse or are they actually admitting defeat They’re media is state run so it’s weird that they’d say something negative about themselves
Adrian Bailey
Admitting a defeat is justification for escalation.
Ethan Thomas
They're going to use it to declare mobilization or worse
James Hughes
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia’s Defense Ministry said Saturday that it is pulling back forces from two areas in Ukraine’s Kharkiv region where a Ukrainian counter offensive has made significant advances in the past week.
Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said the troops would be regrouped from the Balakliya and Izyum areas to the Donetsk region. Izyum was a major base for Russian forces in the Kharkiv region.
The claim of pullback to concentrate on Donetsk is similiar to the justification Russia gave for pulling back its forces from the Kyiv region earlier this year.
Russia bros... did we perchance get, how do you say, too cocky?
