Very apt compilation thought of yours -- "We've seen this movie before. The unmotivated collapsing before the onslaught of the motivated. The S. Vietnamese Army collapse during the NVA final assault in April of '75, the mass surrenders of the Iraqi Army in the '91 Persian Gulf War and the Afghan Army melting away in the face of the Taliban offensive in Aug. of '21. "
And a wider Reuters effort a few hours after yours:
Russia's war on Ukraine latest: Ukraine retakes land around Bakhmut
Reuters
May 13, 2023 10:09 AM GMT+10Last Updated 4 hours ago
Ukrainian service members from a 110th Separate Mechanised Brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, prepare fire a self-propelled howitzer "Dana", amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, near the town of Avdiivka in Donetsk region, Ukraine May 9, 2023. REUTERS/Sofiia Gatilova
May 12 (Reuters) - Moscow acknowledged on Friday that its forces had fallen back north of Ukraine's battlefield city of Bakhmut after a new offensive, in a retreat that the head of Russia's Wagner private army called a rout.
* As anticipation grows of a Ukrainian counteroffensive aiming to drive Moscow's forces out of the land they have seized in the last 15 months, Serhiy Cherevatyi, spokesman for the "east" group of Ukrainian forces said on Telegram: "In three days of counter-offensive activity, the Ukrainian Armed Forces in the Bakhmut sector have liberated 17.3 sq. km of territory."
* President Zelenskiy said Ukraine had to keep pressing Russian forces and promised more weapons to his soldiers "to defeat the aggressor"
* "We must put pressure on them every day so that their sense of defeat turns into their flight, their mistakes, their losses", he said in a daily address. Advertisement · Scroll to continue
* Russia's defence ministry said its forces had repelled a surge of attempted Ukrainian attacks against its positions in eastern Ukraine but admitted its troops had fallen back in one area to regroup, for what it said were tactical reasons.
* Yevgeny Prigozhin, head of the Wagner forces that have led the campaign in Bakhmut, said in an audio message that what the ministry described, "unfortunately, is called 'a rout' and not a regrouping".
* In a separate video message, Prigozhin said the Ukrainians seized high ground overlooking Bakhmut and opened the main highway leading into the city from the West, saying 5 sq km had been lost on Friday alone.
* The Ukrainian military said in a daily update that Russia was focussing its efforts near Lyman, Bakhmut, Avdiivka and Marinka. "The enemy carried out 36 attacks in these directions in the last 24 hours."
* Police in the Russian city of St. Petersburg have created a new anti-drone unit to detect unmanned aerial vehicles following a purported drone attack on the Kremlin earlier this month.
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