Russia’s withdrawal from around Kyiv and the north and north-east of
Ukraine appears more comprehensive than most onlookers had anticipated. It will be a little while before the picture becomes definitive, but Moscow’s forces are now fast retreating out of the country from the Kyiv, Chernihiv and Sumy districts, Ukrainian regional officials say.
It is impossible to describe this as anything other than a serious reverse. Such is the haste of the exit that
some units are being left behind to be mopped up by the Ukrainians. Sumy, a little over 30km from the Russian border, did not fall to the invaders, while the road to Chernihiv, which was at risk of encirclement, is now open to the capital to the south-west.
Kyiv too can breathe again: the month of danger has passed and the full withdrawal means that the capital is no longer in range of artillery fire – although it can still be struck by missiles from Belarus, if the Russians bloodymindedly choose to launch them. And, while it may appear that a re-invasion could happen again at any time, the reality is that unless something dramatic happens elsewhere it cannot succeed.
Russia’s problem is that its forces have taken significant losses from its overoptimistic, poorly planned multi-front attack. The number killed could be anywhere from 7,000 to 15,000, with wounded typically double that, from an invasion force of about 140,000. As Mark Cancian, a senior adviser at the US Center for Strategic and International Studies,
wrote last week, it could be that Russia has lost “about a quarter of its initial combat force”.
Other estimates from western officials have suggested Russian combat effectiveness may be depleted by a fifth or a sixth, not as high perhaps but still operationally significant. The haste of the retreat acknowledges that the invaders are in many respects exhausted and need to concentrate operations, fighting street by street to take Mariupol in the south and a more conventional military campaign in the Donbas region, where Ukraine’s forces are dug in.