If a picture is worth a thousand words, a map is all the more valuable, especially to summarize the advance of Ukrainian troops towards the East. The lieutenant general of the Russian army experienced this on Tuesday, October 4 during his traditional briefing. As he listed the losses inflicted on the enemy, maps playing in the background showed just the opposite. But then what do we see? Explanations.
It all started in Moscow, Tuesday, October 4 during the day. The scene goes back to Igor Konashenkov’s last briefing. With an impassive face, this lieutenant general of the Russian army carries out, as since the beginning of the Russian invasion, the briefing on the operations in progress. He then lists the Russian successes of the day before, the number of Ukrainian tanks destroyed, the number of soldiers put out of action, the number of high-precision missile strikes… Except that, at the same time, the maps broadcast in background tell a whole different story.
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Looking more closely, we see that the Russian army retreated forty kilometers, in the Kherson region, where it lost several localities, but also in the Kharkiv region. This is not the first time that the maps released by the Russian Ministry of Defense clearly show the retreat of its army. Thus, these maps shown by Moscow, compared to those of the day before, clearly show that the Kremlion forces left a large number of localities in the Kherson region, in particular that of Dudtchany on the western bank of the Dnieper river, while the Ukrainian army has been leading a counter-offensive there for several weeks, which has struggled to break through until now. The map of the Kharkiv region shows that the Russians have left almost all of the eastern bank of the Oskil River, the last area of the region they still controlled.
It was enough for the image by Igor Konashenkov is diverted on social networks, with ironic messages: “Russian troops victoriously retreated.”
The fact remains that the Russians who confirm the military successes of the Ukrainians is all the more paradoxical, when we know that kyiv absolutely does not communicate on its own progress. Until now, monitoring of the counter-offensive has been done to the rhythm of President Volodymyr Zelensky’s announcements, backed up by photos and testimonials from the field. The maps of Moscow allow, there, to confirm the Ukrainian reconquests, like the city from Lyman this weekend.
So many elements corroborated in a new speech by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Tuesday, October 4, this time in the evening. He claims progress “fast and powerful” of his army in the South, reporting “tens“of recovered localities”this week” to the Russians in this region and in the East, he said in his daily address published on social networks. In particular, he cited eight localities taken over by kyiv forces in the Kherson region, where the army has retreated… as also shown by the maps presented a few hours earlier by the Russian Ministry of Defense. And the Ukrainian head of state to drive the point home: “Our soldiers do not stop. It is only a matter of time before we drive the occupier out of all of our lands.”
On the ground, on the other hand, it is difficult to know how the Russian soldiers experience these breakthroughs from kyiv. In Russia, it is no longer a secret for the population. We talk about it openly on social networks, like Telegram, especially in pro-Kremlin circles. Critics are coming more and more clearly against the General Staff, the generals and the Minister of Defense Sergei Choigou.
Wednesday October 5, moreover, it is the Kremlin itself which tries to regain control, by promising to recover the lost territories, while ensuring that these regions will be with Russia “forever”. “Some territories will be taken over and we will continue to consult with the (local) population about their wish to live in Russia“, declared to the press the spokesman of the Russian presidency, Dmitry Peskov, questioned on the exact borders of these annexed regions, of which Vladimir Putin signed the law formalizing their annexation on Wednesday.