Lysychansk Falls, Russia Takes Control of All Lugansk Region as Ukrainian Resistance Collapses (Alexander Mercouris)

An excellent and fair summation of the situation in Ukraine dealing with a lot of military issues. The fact remains that the Ukrainian side has taken a huge number of casualties and that their force set up is not helping to maintain morale. They are following, according to Alexander, a US model that puts lower ranking soldiers in the line of fire while excluding higher ranking officers. This compares to the Russian side that has seen a number of deaths of higher ranking soldiers who seem to be be closer to the front lines. There is talk on the Ukrainian side that they have been abandoned by their higher ups. This mentality is probably reinforced by the fact they've been told to hold ground in the face of massive firepower, with no real opportunity to counter attack, and where a withdrawal to better positions seemed like a better option.

In spite of the losses the Ukrainian side is still fighting back. It is difficult to determine how weakened their forces have become. Other sources have pointed to Ukrainian casualty numbers in the order of 50 to 100 thousand troops where the Russian losses, reported here, are somewhere near 10 thousand.

[Posted at the SpookyWeather2 blog, July 5, 2022.]