Britain’s Ministry of Defence (MoD) has credited Russia’s relatively well-executed withdrawal from Kherson to their forces’ more unified leadership under General Sergei Surovikin, but believes they are still “riven” with poor leadership at lower levels and a “cover-up culture”.
“Russia’s recent withdrawal from west of Kherson was conducted in relatively good order compared to previous major Russian retreats during the war,” the British defence ministry suggested in its Sunday update on the course of the war in Ukraine — likely having in mind such incidents as the rapid rout from the Kharkiv (Kharkov) region.
“During the retreat, vehicle losses were likely in the tens rather than hundreds, while much kit that was left behind was successfully destroyed by Russian forces to deny it to Ukraine,” the MoD suggested.
“This relative success is likely partially due to a more effective, single operational command under General Sergei Surovikin,” they said, referring to the “brutal” former Soviet commander who has taken over what was formerly a somewhat fractured Russian leadership structure in Ukraine.
“However, the force remains riven by poor junior and mid-level leadership and cover-up culture,” the British added, highlighting an alleged incident in which “two companies subordinate to the Eastern Military District fled after their commander was killed”, with officers “likely” lying to try and “cover up the incident”.
The update comes as Britain’s newly-minted prime minister, Rishi Sunak, visited the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv (Kiev) to meet with the embattled country’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky,
The Ukrainian premier described Sunak’s surprise visit as “very meaningful”, saying they “managed to discuss all the key issues of our relations.”
“There will be new results for both our countries — that’s for sure,” he said, adding: “Thank you, Rishi, Mr Prime Minister, for your willingness to defend freedom even more strongly with us. We also have some very necessary decisions — we agreed on them today.”
Indeed, Prime Minister Sunak, while breaking his political party’s 2019 election manifesto pledge with a swath of new tax hikes at home, unveiled yet another tranche of military aid for Ukraine during the visit — namely a new £50 million air defence package.
Russia has previously warned that the United Kingdom is already “too deep” in its conflict with Ukraine, going “up to the line” of “no return” in terms of possible escalation.
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