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Blinken says Ukraine has taken back 50% of territory that Russia seized (www.reuters.com)

submitted 1 year ago by little_cow@lemmy.world to c/world@lemmy.world

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WASHINGTON, July 23 (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that while Ukraine has reconquered half the territory that Russia initially seized in its invasion, Kyiv faced a "a very hard fight" to win back more.

"It’s already taken back about 50% of what was initially seized," Blinken said in an interview to CNN on Sunday.

"These are still relatively early days of the counteroffensive. It is tough," he said, adding: "It will not play out over the next week or two. We’re still looking I think at several months."

Hopes that Ukraine could quickly clear Moscow's forces from its territory following the launch of a summer counteroffensive are fading as Kyiv's troops struggle to breach heavily entrenched Russian positions in the country's south and east.

Late last month President Volodymyr Zelenskiy was quoted as saying that progress against Russian forces was "slower than desired" but that Kyiv would not be pressured into speeding it up.

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[-] Arotrios@kbin.social 72 points 1 year ago

I love boosting good news, especially given the enormous amount of Russian disinformation surrounding the "failure" and "slow going" of the offensive.

It was never going to be quick, or easy, and I think that the extraordinary successes of earlier Ukrainian counter-offensives set expectations higher than the reality on the ground.

But in the balance, Ukraine went from having half its territory captured by the 2nd strongest army in the world to knocking them back on their knees and retaking half of what was lost in the space of less than two years. That's an incredible success in the face of overwhelming odds, even with NATO and EU support. One only has to look at the Russian takeovers in Eastern Europe after WWII to get a sense of how unique it is that Ukraine was able to not only resist, but drive back the invaders.

From California and all Americans who support freedom, Слава Україні!

[-] oatscoop@midwest.social 12 points 1 year ago

It also ignores war aren't always won by taking and holding territory: many are won by simply outlasting the enemy's willingness or ability to maintain the conflict.

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[-] xc2215x@lemmy.world 38 points 1 year ago

Good for Ukraine.

[-] popemichael 38 points 1 year ago

It's funny that he works for the US government and his name is A. Blinken

It sounds like a joke from Robin Hood: Men in Tights

[-] SCB@lemmy.world 15 points 1 year ago

Also he has a band called "Ablinken," so you know he definitely leans into the joke.

They're on Spotify, and surprisingly fun. Gen X dad-rock.

[-] assassin_aragorn@lemmy.world 6 points 1 year ago

Oh my god. It's real.

[-] Default_Defect@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago

This is the best news I've seen all week.

[-] chardiemacdennis@lemmy.world 28 points 1 year ago

Well it's a start!

[-] Darkhoof@lemmy.world 24 points 1 year ago

Nice. They need to keep going.

[-] Agareth@lemmy.world 22 points 1 year ago

Give them fucking jets for fucks sake.

[-] GiuseppeAndTheYeti@midwest.social 27 points 1 year ago

They're being trained on F-16s via Poland if I'm not mistaken. But those F-16s aren't going to make things much easier either. They'd likely be targeted by S-400s behind the Russian lines, so their operational range while being in friendly airspace is probably pretty limited. The slow pace than hoped for is mostly affected by the mines that Russia laid and entrenched soldiers. The drone-dropped grenades are more effective at dealing with entrenched soldiers than an F-16 having to evade redar and SAMs.

[-] Lenins2ndCat@lemmy.world 13 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

This uhh. This is just nonsense right? I'm not aware of Ukraine having broken any of the defensive first lines let alone past any of the dragon's teeth lines. There's 2 more lines beyond those. Getting past these lines is necessary before getting even 10%, let alone 50%.

Or are they talking about something that happened much earlier? That's really confusing too because anyone that's been watching the map trackers knows nothing close to 50% ever happened. Certainly some pushback several months ago but hardly 50% ????

[-] chowder@lemmy.one 8 points 1 year ago

Kiyv, Kherson, & Kharkiv.

[-] Lenins2ndCat@lemmy.world 12 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Aight so like 15-20% and he's referring to something that happened ages ago then. I thought it was kinda weird, I guess they're not happy about how the current counteroffensive is going either and this kind of statement helps generate headlines that stop people's support dropping whether it's actually true or not.

I needed to ask because I wasn't really sure if I'd just missed something incredibly major somehow.

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[-] Ignacio@kbin.social 12 points 1 year ago

50% is half of the territory, but looking at the maps, it looks like it's less than 50%. Am I missing something?

[-] Paws@lemmy.world 31 points 1 year ago

Russia took quite a bit of territory in the northern parts early on, which Ukraine have since taken back. They've also taken some ground back that was lost a few years ago from the east.

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[-] gun@lemmy.ml 12 points 1 year ago

So he's trying to argue the blue area = the red area in size. Doesn't look exactly so.

[-] kokiriflute@lemmy.world 10 points 1 year ago

Slava Ukraini

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[-] CantSt0pPoppin@lemmy.world 8 points 1 year ago

This post is accurate here is a direct link to the qoute of 50 precent of Ukraine being taken back from Ruissia

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xAjK1zJEnXI

[-] PipedLinkBot@feddit.rocks 16 points 1 year ago

Here is an alternative Piped link(s): https://piped.video/watch?v=xAjK1zJEnXI

Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.

I'm open-source, check me out at GitHub.

[-] Grant_M@lemmy.ca 5 points 1 year ago

#JetsForUkraine

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[-] md5crypto@lemmy.world 4 points 1 year ago

I'll believe it when inside Ukrainian sources say the same thing.

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this post was submitted on 23 Jul 2023

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