Frontline newsletter: Kurakhove is crumbling

Death penalty for corrupt generals, mockery of Zelensky, the implications of Velyka Novosilka, 7 km to Dnipro region, Zaluzhny's WW3, organizational reforms

Plenty of topics today. Here’s an overview of what this week’s Ukrainian military commentators and frontline wrote about:

• November 23-26 events on the frontline. The Velyka Novosilka breakthrough and its implications for major cities like Dnipro and Zaporizhzhia

• How Kurakhove is ‘crumbling’ due to manpower shortages. One military telegram wishes there were more, or rather, any death penalties for corruption among military bosses

• Failed fortifications due to incompetence and corruption leading to Russian breakthroughs

• More retreats south of Kurakhove, also blamed on organizational chaos and corrupt, unconcerned generals

• Ex-chief of the army Zaluzhny’s claims world war three has already begun, and the mocking reception by actual Ukrainian military nationalists. Of note is Azov military analyst Ponomarenko’s argument that the Russo-Ukrainian war is simply a regional conflict, nothing more. There was also some interesting broader criticism of Zaluzhny from Azov’s ‘Tales of the IV Reich’

• Zelensky made one of his usual populist gestures by calling for all generals to ‘serve in the trenches’. This was received with more mocking disdain by our favorite frontline commentators. And some interesting analysis of the legalized incompetence of many Ukrainian officers

• Analysis of how Russian psyops work behind enemy lines - IEDs set by locals in Kiev kill a soldier

• Military technologies: the usual complaining about Russian superiority. Defective Ukrainian mines, insufficient guided aerial bombs, the danger of fiber optic drones

• Finally, reforms of Ukraine’s military structure have been announced. Ukraine’s militarists respond positively

• Commentary on Russia’s recent ICBM strike