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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[-] Lenins2ndCat@lemmy.world 6 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% ????

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[-] gun@lemmy.ml 3 points 1 year ago

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

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[-] popemichael@lemmy.sdf.org 3 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 1 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 2 points 1 year ago

Oh my god. It's real.

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

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

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

Give them fucking jets for fucks sake.

[-] GiuseppeAndTheYeti@midwest.social 2 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.

[-] Ignacio@kbin.social 1 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?

[-] ghariksforge@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago

No, they assumed that you won't actually check it.

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this post was submitted on 23 Jul 2023

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