Thanks to the cinematic glut of patriotism that ran rampant during the Cold War, modern Americans have long held a very specific stereotype of the Russian military as being a cold, calculating, and fearsome fighting force capable of shutting down their emotional brain and simply making work of war.
This is how you make a triumphant story after all: Create a nigh-unbeatable bad guy and then beat him anyway.
But knowing what we know now about the Russian military, those movies appear to be largely hogwash. The truth of the matter is that the Kremlin’s troops had to be tricked into even participating in the invasion, and have been taking such heavy casualties in recent weeks that some Russian soldiers have taken to shooting themselves in their legs with stolen Ukrainian ammunition in order to get sent home.
Now, in a stunning revelation that could sink morale even further, Russian troops are being called back from one of their major operations.
Russia’s withdrawal of troops from a Ukrainian region that they encircled at the beginning of the war is proving their “inability to capture key Ukrainian cities,” the United Kingdom’s Ministry of Defense said Thursday.
In an intelligence update, the Ministry said “Ukrainian forces are continuing to counterattack to the north of Kharkiv, recapturing several towns and villages towards the Russian border.”
“Despite Russia’s success in encircling Kharkiv in the initial stages of the conflict, it has reportedly withdrawn units from the region to reorganize and replenish its forces following heavy losses,” the Ministry continued.
The maneuver comes as experts continue to suggest that Russia has lost a massive percentage of the fighting force that it had allotted for Ukraine, which in turn forced these enormous battle changes.
