November 10, 2022 Russia-Ukraine news

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Wednesday said a recent Pentagon assessment that Russia has lost 50% of its tanks in the war in Ukraine “more or less corresponds to reality.” 

In an interview with CNN’s Chief International Anchor Christiane Amanpour on Wednesday, Zelensky said Russia has suffered a “stunning” number of losses of military personnel and artillery. 

On Tuesday, Colin Kahl, the Pentagon’s Under Secretary of Defense for Policy told reporters Russia will come out of the war “weaker than when it went in,” having “probably lost half of their main battle tanks in the entire Russian military.” Kahl also pointed to the fact that Russia has “bogged down more than 80% of their land force in Ukraine” and exhausted the majority of its precision guided weapons in Ukraine.

Zelensky said he estimated Russia has suffered “10 times” more losses than Ukraine, adding that although he couldn’t give exact figures there is “a very significant difference” between the losses sustained by the two countries.

He also said Ukraine’s reluctance to throw men away as “cannon fodder” is another reason why it has not suffered as many casualties as Russia. 

“Whenever we ask our partners for artillery or armored vehicles, that it is not just about the weapons, but first of all protection for our military,” Zelensky added. 

The Ukrainian leader pointed to the fact that artillery provided to Ukraine by the United States and Europe succeeded in helping to “break” the Russian military offensive. 

Russia has suffered more than 100,000 killed and wounded soldiers as a result of the war in Ukraine, the top US general said Wednesday evening — and Ukraine is probably looking at similar numbers.

Joint Chiefs Chair Gen. Mark Milley, speaking at an event at The Economic Club of New York, called Russia’s invasion of Ukraine a “tremendous strategic mistake” for which the country would pay “for years and years and years to come.”

The war, which began in February, has caused a tremendous amount of human suffering, Milley said, including between 15 million and 30 million refugees and about 40,000 Ukrainian civilians killed. 

Road to peace: Milley said there may be a chance to negotiate an end to the conflict if and when the front lines stabilize during winter. 

But if negotiations never materialized or failed, Milley said the United States would continue to arm Ukraine, even as outright military victory for either side looks increasingly unlikely.

“There has to be a mutual recognition that military victory is probably in the true sense of the word may be not achievable through military means, and therefore you need to turn to other means,” he said.

Kherson withdrawal: Milley also said the US was seeing initial indications that Russia was indeed pulling out of Kherson, as they had stated. But he said the withdrawal of up to 30,000 Russian troops from the west bank of the Dnipro River could take days or even weeks. 

President Volodymyr Zelensky said Wednesday that Russia's announcement of a withdrawal near the southern city of Kherson may be a strategic move to regroup forces.

But he also said, in an interview with CNN's Christiane Amanpour, that at a time of his choosing, Ukrainian progress on the battlefield would come.

He added that Ukrainians "are not considering this as just one single operation."

"We have a strategy and different directions," he added.

Some background: Russian state media reported that Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu has ordered a withdrawal of Russian forces from the west bank of the Dnipro River in the Kherson region. His order comes as Ukrainian forces advance toward the city of Kherson from two directions. 

US President Joe Biden said he’s hopeful that with the midterm election over, Russian President Vladimir Putin will be more willing to discuss the release of WNBA star Brittney Griner, who was recently transferred to a Russian penal colony to serve the remainder of a nine-year drug smuggling sentence that was upheld in late October. 

The President said the US has had discussions with Russia — but is hoping that with the election over, "there is a willingness to negotiate more specifically with us."

Asked if he could explain some of the alternative ways forward the administration had previously referred to and how Russia had responded to them, Biden answered, “I can but I won’t.” 

The UK government said Wednesday that a British man lost his life in Ukraine.

The UK foreign office in a statement said it was "supporting the family of a British national who has lost his life in Ukraine," but did not reveal the person's name.

The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) added that it was in touch with "the local authorities in connection with his death." 

In June, former British Army soldier Jordan Gatley was shot and killed while fighting in Ukraine's Severodonetsk, CNN reported at the time. 

British aid worker Paul Urey died in the annexed Donetsk region of Ukraine earlier this year after the Russian invasion started, CNN reported.

One of the most senior Russian-appointed officials in occupied Ukrainian territory has been killed, Russian officials and state news agencies said Wednesday.

The Russian-appointed deputy head of the Kherson region in southern Ukraine, Kirill Stremousov, died in a road accident, the press secretary of the head of the region said, according to Russian news agency TASS.

Also on Wednesday, Russia ordered a retreat from the west bank of the Dnipro River��across the Kherson region, a dramatic setback for Moscow in the face of recent Ukrainian advances.

Stremousov was killed in an accident on the highway between Kherson and Armyansk in Crimea, the Russian state media company Vesti (VGTRK) reported, citing the region’s health minister. Stremousov was 45 years old, according to Vesti.

Read more here.

Russia has ordered a retreat from the key southern city of Kherson, the only regional capital it has captured since February’s invasion, in a dramatic strategic setback for Russian President Vladimir Putin.

In the face of Ukrainian advances in the region, Russian troops across the Kherson region will withdraw from the west bank of the Dnipro River, an area that includes Kherson city, Russian state media reported Wednesday.

The order came at a meeting in Moscow between Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and the commander of Russian forces in Ukraine, Gen. Sergei Surovikin, as Ukrainian forces approach the city from two directions.

The Russian withdrawal would represent the most significant military moment in the war since Ukrainian forces swept through the northern Kharkiv region in September.

Ukrainian officials have however remained skeptical that Russian forces had left the west bank altogether.

Ukraine “is liberating territories based on intelligence data, not staged TV statements,” Podolyak added.

Read more here.