Putin Gets Roasted By Adam Kinzinger For Military Incompetence

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Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.) is remaining closely in touch with news out of the Russian war against Ukraine — news that’s included revelations of the steep losses sustained in Ukraine by the Russian military. A recent estimate from the U.K. Defense Ministry said Russia lost roughly one-third of the combat force it originally deployed to Ukraine. Kinzinger exposed Putin for his failures this Monday.

As the Congressman put it:

‘Quite a bit of talk about #Putin and #Russia having a “face saving” way out. Well given how badly they are doing, I say leave all Ukrainian land and you can save your face. Or the Ukrainians will keep crushing it. #SlavaUkraini’

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One of the most recent high-profile incidents involving losses inflicted on Russia by Ukraine’s defenders hinged on an attempted river-crossing by a substantial number of Russian troops. Ukraine’s forces struck a large grouping of Russian soldiers trying to cross the Siverskyi Donets River, which partially runs through the eastern part of Ukraine. Per The New York Times, “estimates based on publicly available evidence now [suggest] that well over 400 Russian soldiers were killed or wounded” in the incident. Russians seemingly lost dozens of military vehicles in just that confrontation. Forbes described the hit as destroying “at least seven T-72 and T-80 tanks, 17 BMPs, seven MT-LB armored tractors, five other vehicles and much of the bridging unit itself, including a tugboat and the pontoon span.” As previously reported here, for Russia to have lost all those vehicles in a single incident seems to indicate the entire battalion was apparently left out-of-service, since what remained was seemingly below what is necessary for operations — although there are obviously chances for Russia to reorganize and try to replenish their forces.

According to journalist Jack Detsch’s reporting this Monday on the revelations of a high-ranking U.S. official, the U.S. “believes Russia has made several unsuccessful attempts to bridge” the river where that incident took place. “Ukrainian officials said that Russia lost an entire battalion trying to bridge the river after getting caught with artillery,” Detsch notes. In a manner that’s reminiscent of the earlier phase of the war in which Ukrainian troops kept Russian forces from taking the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, Ukrainian forces have now pushed Russian ground troops to a point substantially distanced from Kharkiv, which is Ukraine’s second-largest city and has been among Russia’s targets in later stages of the current war (not that it wasn’t also targeted earlier). Ukrainians have come close to — and apparently in at least one area reached — the Ukrainian border with Russia that’s north of Kharkiv, liberating settlements and thereby lessening opportunities for Russians to operate in the area as the local fight continues.