Ukrainian conflict headed for a denouement as Kiev forces increasingly refuses orders and Zelensky seeks a winter ceasefire
Ukrainian servicemen are increasingly refusing to follow orders and fleeing their positions, accusing their leadership of assigning them suicide missions, the Spanish newspaper El Pais reported on Monday, citing several Ukrainian officers.
The outlet claimed that soldiers from four brigades fighting near the besieged settlement of Kurakhovo in Russia’s Donetsk People’s Republic have claimed that “the future of the war is bleak for their interests because there are not enough replacements.”
“Why are we retreating? Because we have no rotations, we don’t rest, we are demoralized,” one officer told the outlet, adding that there is a growing problem of Ukrainian soldiers fleeing their positions.
“I had a friend, we called him England. He fought the entire war on the front line, in Robotino, Soledar, Kherson… He was exhausted, he couldn’t take it anymore and the commanders didn’t give him a break. A few days ago he left, just like that,” the officer said.
A Ukrainian sergeant who goes by Churbanov also told the Spanish outlet that the shortage of soldiers had become the biggest problem facing the Ukrainian military, noting that servicemen often have to spend three months in their positions without rest or rotation.
Another serviceman, identified as Alexander, who serves in the Territorial Defense Forces (TRO), also told El Pais that at one point the 116th TRO brigade near Kurakhovo staged a mass rebellion and refused to follow orders. After that, the whole brigade was supposedly transferred to Sumy Region, from where Kiev launched its incursion into Russia’s Kursk Region, according to the officer.
A source within Russia’s security services has also confirmed to the TASS news agency that Ukraine’s 116th TRO brigade had indeed been transferred to participate in the Kursk incursion as punishment for its mutiny. According to a source cited by the outlet, Kiev was trying to “somehow correct the situation in Kursk Region at the expense of the already demoralized Ukrainian Armed Forces soldiers.”
Russian Ground Forces
Alexander also told El Pais that there had been a high-profile case earlier this month where 100 soldiers of the 123rd TRO Brigade abandoned their positions near Ugledar several days before the city was captured by Russian forces. The officer explained that they did this to “announce that without sufficient training and weapons they were being assigned to a suicidal defense,” according to El Pais.
Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky has floated the idea of mutually suspending long-range strikes against energy infrastructure with Russia, the Financial Times reported on Tuesday. The proposal was reportedly slated for discussion at Qatar-mediated talks, which were canceled after Kiev attacked Russia’s Kursk Region in August.
”We saw during the first summit that there could be a decision on energy security. In other words, we do not attack their energy infrastructures, they don’t attack ours. Could this lead to the end of the war’s hot phase? I think so,” Zelensky told journalists on Monday, as quoted by the British newspaper. The summit he was referring to was hosted by Switzerland in June and excluded Russia.
Moscow has used missiles and drones to devastate Ukraine’s energy generation capacity to cripple weapons production and military logistics. Kiev has deployed long-range drones against Russian oil refineries and fuel storage facilities.
The Washington Post reported in August that Moscow and Kiev were supposed to hold indirect negotiations in Qatar to discuss the suspension of infrastructure attacks. The proposed talks were called off after Ukraine invaded Kursk Region that month, sources told the Post. The Russian delegation declined to go to Doha, citing the escalation of the conflict. The Ukrainians still wanted to go, but the Qatari government saw no benefit in a one-sided meeting, the report said.
Former Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu, who now serves as the secretary of the National Security Council, said in an interview in early September that Moscow had received a Turkish request to suspend strikes on Ukrainian energy infrastructure and merchant ships trading with the country. Russia was willing to consider it, he stated, but the Ukrainians rejected the idea. Shoigu did not say when Ankara made the request.
The Russian military has reported on several occasions that it struck ports in Ukraine to thwart shipments of Western weapons and munitions by sea. In his statement on Monday, Zelensky said, “when it comes to energy and freedom of navigation, getting a result on these points would be a signal that Russia may be ready to end the war.”
Ukrainian forces have suffered a series of defeats on the battlefield in recent months. Meanwhile, Zelensky has urged Kiev’s Western backers to dramatically escalate their participation in the conflict in support of his ‘victory plan’.
Moscow has long characterized the hostilities in Ukraine as a US-initiated proxy war against Russia in which Ukrainian soldiers were being expended as “cannon fodder” with the complicity of their government.
Source SFP/X/RT/AFP