this post was submitted on 23 Jul 2023

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Blinken says Ukraine has taken back 50% of territory that Russia seized (www.reuters.com)

submitted 1 year ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

88 comments fedilink hide all child comments

WASHINGTON, July 23 (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that while Ukraine has reconquered half the territory that Russia initially seized in its invasion, Kyiv faced a "a very hard fight" to win back more.

"It’s already taken back about 50% of what was initially seized," Blinken said in an interview to CNN on Sunday.

"These are still relatively early days of the counteroffensive. It is tough," he said, adding: "It will not play out over the next week or two. We’re still looking I think at several months."

Hopes that Ukraine could quickly clear Moscow's forces from its territory following the launch of a summer counteroffensive are fading as Kyiv's troops struggle to breach heavily entrenched Russian positions in the country's south and east.

Late last month President Volodymyr Zelenskiy was quoted as saying that progress against Russian forces was "slower than desired" but that Kyiv would not be pressured into speeding it up.

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[–] [email protected] 26 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I love boosting good news, especially given the enormous amount of Russian disinformation surrounding the "failure" and "slow going" of the offensive.

It was never going to be quick, or easy, and I think that the extraordinary successes of earlier Ukrainian counter-offensives set expectations higher than the reality on the ground.

But in the balance, Ukraine went from having half its territory captured by the 2nd strongest army in the world to knocking them back on their knees and retaking half of what was lost in the space of less than two years. That's an incredible success in the face of overwhelming odds, even with NATO and EU support. One only has to look at the Russian takeovers in Eastern Europe after WWII to get a sense of how unique it is that Ukraine was able to not only resist, but drive back the invaders.

From California and all Americans who support freedom, Слава Україні!

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

It also ignores war aren't always won by taking and holding territory: many are won by simply outlasting the enemy's willingness or ability to maintain the conflict.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Don’t use Nazi terms

[–] [email protected] 24 points 1 year ago (1 children)

It's funny that he works for the US government and his name is A. Blinken

It sounds like a joke from Robin Hood: Men in Tights

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Also he has a band called "Ablinken," so you know he definitely leans into the joke.

They're on Spotify, and surprisingly fun. Gen X dad-rock.

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[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago (10 children)

Slava Ukraini

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

Don’t use Nazi phrases

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago (1 children)

So he's trying to argue the blue area = the red area in size. Doesn't look exactly so.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Crimea, Transnistria, and the area outlined in bright red in Donetsk/Alchevsk have been occupied by Russia since before the war. So it is around 50% of the area that they took back

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (4 children)

Blinken makes no distinction between what territory changed hands before 2022 and after. That wasn't the claim

Edit: Even so, the red area that is not outlined still looks bigger than the blue areas.

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Give them fucking jets for fucks sake.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago

They're being trained on F-16s via Poland if I'm not mistaken. But those F-16s aren't going to make things much easier either. They'd likely be targeted by S-400s behind the Russian lines, so their operational range while being in friendly airspace is probably pretty limited. The slow pace than hoped for is mostly affected by the mines that Russia laid and entrenched soldiers. The drone-dropped grenades are more effective at dealing with entrenched soldiers than an F-16 having to evade redar and SAMs.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

This post is accurate here is a direct link to the qoute of 50 precent of Ukraine being taken back from Ruissia

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xAjK1zJEnXI

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago

Here is an alternative Piped link(s): https://piped.video/watch?v=xAjK1zJEnXI

Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.

I'm open-source, check me out at GitHub.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (4 children)

50% is half of the territory, but looking at the maps, it looks like it's less than 50%. Am I missing something?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

Russia took quite a bit of territory in the northern parts early on, which Ukraine have since taken back. They've also taken some ground back that was lost a few years ago from the east.

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Good for Ukraine.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Nice. They need to keep going.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Well it's a start!

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (23 children)

This uhh. This is just nonsense right? I'm not aware of Ukraine having broken any of the defensive first lines let alone past any of the dragon's teeth lines. There's 2 more lines beyond those. Getting past these lines is necessary before getting even 10%, let alone 50%.

Or are they talking about something that happened much earlier? That's really confusing too because anyone that's been watching the map trackers knows nothing close to 50% ever happened. Certainly some pushback several months ago but hardly 50% ????

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (2 children)

This is since the invasion began, counting from Russia's deepest gains into Ukrainian territory. So, this is everything that Ukraine has managed to do against the world's second largest military. While currently there haven't been any spectacular gains, the Ukraine has been steadily grinding the land back from the invaders and combined the amount now adds up to 50% retaken.

Meaning the job is half done, but also half finished.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (2 children)

This boundless optimism is so strange. Using something that was so long ago now for propaganda in the present is super misleading. Until we see a breakthrough of the defensive lines, literally just 1 layer of a line would be a good start let alone all 3 layers I can't really agree with anyone that thinks much is going to happen from the ukrainian side. If/when that does happen I'd be happy to reassess.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Not really. It's an overall view of the progress to date. The liberation of Ukrainian territory is an continuous and ongoing process and it's half done. The only super misleading part has been thinking that Russia would give up on its latest bout of imperialism so quickly. America is going to keep supplying Ukraine with weapons because by doing so they are absolutely wrecking their #1 enemy on the cheap.

Russia is fucked. Even if they beat Ukraine their invasion has caused NATO to expand its direct contact with Russia from over 1000km. Russian threw away decades of goodwill and cause economic cooperation with the West to completely die out. Russia was on the verge of being Europe's OPEC and all of that potential to make their nation better has been utterly lost.

No one is going to trust Russia for at least another full generation.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

Mate I don't know why you've said half this shit. I talked about none of that. It's like you're talking at me rather than with me. US weapons? Who said anything about america? It's like you're reading off a script instead of actually responding to what I've said. I'm glad that you're really excited to see loads of people die but like, actually talk to me instead of soapboxing.

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

The job is not at all half finished. There is a massive difference between taking back territory Russia strategically chose to withdraw from following their failure to advance further and taking back territory they have claimed as an integral part of their nation and will fight tooth and nail to defend.