On June 26, the war in Ukraine lasted 854 days. As the 700,000 Russian troops continued to attack the Ukrainian army on a front of thousands of kilometers, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky inspected the city of Pokrovsk, which was attacked by the Russian army's three-way army.
When introducing Brigadier General Gnatov, the new commander of the Eastern Front of the Ukrainian army, to the senior generals of the front-line troops, Zelensky made it clear that the high-ranking officials of the Kyiv government who have not been to the front line for more than half a year to understand the situation and solve problems will be punished. Obviously, against the backdrop of the Ukrainian army's ineffective frontal battlefield operations, Zelensky is trying to maintain his supreme command.
Recently, the new wave of the Russian offensive under the leadership of the new Defense Minister Belousov has been quite ferocious: not only is it intended to lengthen the front, but it has also started to attack six cities, including Volchansk, Kubyansk, Chasov Yar, Krasnogorovka, Toretsk, and Kurakhovo, each of which requires the participation of tens of thousands of troops. Moreover, as the largest supply base in the Donbass battlefield, Pokrovsk is also threatened by the Russian army's three-way army, among which the Russian army attacking in the north has advanced to a residential area only seven or eight kilometers away from the "Pokrovsk-Konstantinovka" road transport artery.
The Russian army is advancing smoothly, and the Ukrainian army, which has a weak defense, will naturally look for the man behind it. As a result, after the breakthrough of the positions on the outskirts of the city of Toretsk in the jurisdiction, the commander of the Eastern Front of the Ukrainian army, General Sodari, was dismissed. The change of commander in the line of fire is a routine operation. However, General Sodari was dismissed after politicians such as the Ukrainian beauty parliamentarian Bezuglaya, as well as the chief of staff of the Azov battalion, Krotevich, among others, publicly rebuked him.
Moreover, when congresswoman Bezuglaya accused General Sodoli, she also pointed out in passing: When the Russian army broke through the outer defense line of Toretsk, General Sodoli was drunk in a famous hotel in Odessa, and posted a photo at that time. As a result, the melon-eating crowd recognized not only General Sodori in the photo, but even General Barras, who was commanding the Battle of Volchansk.
It is common sense to assume that General Sodori and General Barras should have attended a high-level military meeting in Odessa, and it would have been understandable to have a drink after the meeting. However, whether it is Toretsk or Volchansk, after all, the front line is tight, and they are still eating tightly in the rear, so it is definitely not something that can be put on the table.
As a result, speculation has begun on international social media that General Barras may well become Bezuglaya's next prey after the ouster of the former commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian army, General Zaluzhny, and now General Sodari.
It is not uncommon for one or two generals to be dismissed under public pressure. However, on June 26, the US "Washington Post" partially published a letter of complaint written by the chief of staff of the Azov battalion, Krotevich, to the State Bureau of Investigation of Ukraine, and one of the details caused alarm in the Ukrainian media. In the letter, Krotevich complained that General Sodori had let the Azov battalion, which was running low on shells, counterattack. After the refusal of the Azov battalion, General Sodoli launched a criminal investigation against the commander of the Azov battalion.
Here it needs to be said that in the face of a relatively strong Russian army, insufficient troops and ammunition has always been the norm for the Ukrainian army. Therefore, when the command of the Ukrainian army assigns a task, the first reaction of the front-line generals must be the lack of troops or ammunition needed to complete the task. However, front-line generals were punished if they refused to carry out the orders of the command. Moreover, in such a conflict, the top leadership of the country usually supports the command - otherwise the army loses controllability and refuses to carry out orders under various pretexts.
However, now that General Sodari has been withdrawn, it has set a very dangerous precedent that the Ukrainian army has never had: in this era of extremely developed online social media, if officers can openly express their dissatisfaction with the commanders and use the power of politicians and the media to put pressure on the command, then the command system of the Ukrainian army is in danger of collapsing, and the morale of the troops will also be reduced due to the decline in the prestige of the commanders.
In order to compensate for the shortcomings of the insufficient forces on the front, Kiev formed three police brigades some time ago. On June 26, information from the Russian military revealed that the 2nd Police Composite Brigade, codenamed "Predator", had been transferred to the Chasov Yar Defense Zone. This is a special forces unit formed by patrol police, and the main task should be to organize a counterattack. In the face of the continuous small-scale attacks of the Russian army on a front of thousands of kilometers, the Ukrainian army's response strategy is to attack after attack: the newly captured strong men are sent to the forward positions to defend to the death, and the veterans form commandos to complete the counterattack mission. Since some of the elite of the Ukrainian army in the Chasov Yar region was transferred to the Kharkiv battlefield in the north some time ago, the arrival of the SWAT brigade is to make up for the lack of troops in the counterattack of the Ukrainian army in Chasov Yar.
Public security in the Ukrainian rear is mainly done by the police. Now, Kyiv has sent all the SWAT brigades to the front line, which can only be said that in order to ensure that the frontal battlefield is not so ugly before the NATO-US summit, Zelensky has thrown out all the old books of the caretaker's home.
Of course, when the SWAT brigade goes to the front line, there should also be considerations to calm down public grievances: in the context of the Ukrainian army's strong pull-out, hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian state officials who can avoid going to the front line have always been the target of criticism by the Ukrainian people. Now that the SWAT brigade has gone up, it can be regarded as blocking part of the duties of state officials.
After all, Ukraine, which still has a population of more than 20 million, still has a million male soldiers available, and if it is not for the purpose of rotational warfare, it is still not necessary to let the special police go to the front line for the time being. The day before, on June 25, Ukrainian Defense Ministry spokesman Razutkin publicly said that as of May 18, about 2.3 million Ukrainians had updated their conscription registration data through apps and other means, and about 1.1 million of them met the criteria for conscription and could be mobilized.
The Ukrainian army still has a million male soldiers available, and the Russian army can only continue to fight a protracted war of attrition. Both sides are working hard to persevere until changes in the international situation take place in their favor. The war in Ukraine is already a crucial battle for the readjustment of the international order, and whoever can hold out until the end is not eliminated will be the victor in the changes of a century.
In the face of the Russian army, which surpasses itself in all aspects, it is difficult for the Ukrainian army. But the Russian army is actually challenging NATO, whose conventional strength is several times that of its own, and it is even more difficult for the Russian army.
However, a change in the international situation on June 26 shows that NATO and the United States behind it are not easy: on June 26, Houthi spokesman Yahya publicly stated that the Houthis had launched an attack on an Israeli ship in the Arabian Sea for the first time two days ago using hypersonic missiles of their own production.
The hypersonic missile, which is extremely difficult for the United States to develop, was actually developed by the Houthis. Do Americans believe it? But whether Americans believe it or not, it is certainly true that US aircraft carriers must be careful to deal with an impending hypersonic missile attack. The U.S. military should be even more careful when it provides weapons to the Ukrainian army.