Putin Cancelled His Meeting With Generals After Russian Army's Greatest Defeat Since War Has Begun

The retreat of the Russian army from Izyum and Kupiansk is a complete failure.

Vladimir Putin has already changed command twice since the beginning of the war in Ukraine, and he doesn't want to meet his generals.

The President of the Russian Federation postponed meetings in Sochi with the leadership of the Ministry of Defence after the army in the Kharkiv region suffered the greatest defeat since the beginning of the war.

On Sunday, Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Valery Zaluzhny said that the Armed Forces of Ukraine managed to recapture 3,000 square kilometres in a week. After breaking through the front, the Russian army left the territory in a few days, which it had captured for about three months with thousands of victims.

Following Balakliya, Kupiansk and Izyum were left, where the occupation administration of the Kharkiv region and the headquarters of the group advancing on Donbas from the North were located. The Russian Defense Ministry on Saturday called the events "distractions" and a planned withdrawal of troops.

But that hardly suits President Vladimir Putin. He postponed meetings with the leadership of the Defence Ministry and representatives of the defence industry: these meetings are "shifting to the right" in the schedule of the head of state, according to his press secretary Dmitry Peskov.

“Certain experiences are accumulated that need to be discussed as the special operation develops,” he said, adding that meetings are necessary. Peskov did not name a new term (quotes from RIA News).

The retreat of the Russian army from Raisins and Kupyansk is a “total collapse,” says Phillips O'Brien, a professor of strategic studies at St. Andrews University in Scotland.

"There were probably more troops placed there than anywhere else to fight for Donbas. Actually, they seem to be unable to hold anything there,” O’Brien explains.

Due to the fiasco of the army, the referendums on the annexation of the occupied territories of Ukraine have again been postponed indefinitely, Meduza reports, citing sources close to the Russian presidential administration.

Initially scheduled for May, then postponed to September, then postponed to November, the referendums were put on hold, according to one of the sources of the news publisher.

"The political technologists sent to the Kharkiv and Zaporizhzhia regions to prepare the vote received an order to go home,” says another Meduza source. Russian political technologists who prepared the referendum are still staying in the Kherson region.

"Ukrainians will now have logistical problems of their own after the successful counteroffensive: they will need to supply all the units now scattered throughout the territory occupied by the offensive in the Kharkiv region," O’Brien says. “But the Russians will have trouble stabilising the frontline,” he continues. "So for a while, the situation will be chaotic until a new front line is formed."