Ukrainian forces staged an overnight ambush on a Russian convoy 25 miles inside the international border in Russia’s Kursk province, as the Kremlin declared a federal emergency and said it was transferring extra forces to try to snuff out a four-day incursion that has badly damaged its credibility.

A video circulated by Russian military bloggers showed a destroyed convoy, with bodies just visible inside some trucks, on the E38 east-west highway at Oktyabrskoe, a location far deeper inside Russia than any previously confirmed fighting since Ukraine’s forces crossed the border on Tuesday.

Commentators said the attack, reminiscent of Ukrainian attacks on Russian troops besieging Kyiv in the first weeks of the war, demonstrated an effective hit-and-run strategy, but the incursion appeared likely to draw an escalating response from the Kremlin, and its overall outcome remains profoundly uncertain.

  • Viking_Hippie@lemmy.world
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    5 months ago

    that has badly damaged its credibility.

    People should REALLY stop using that word when they mean perceived military strength!

    Military strength isn’t credibility and the Russian government isn’t credible no matter how well or how badly its army of fascists and forced conscripts is performing.

    • dmalteseknight@programming.dev
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      5 months ago

      I read it as credibility with Russia’s citizens. They believed that their government will prevent any attack coming to Russian soil.

      • OutlierBlue@lemmy.ca
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        5 months ago

        Yes, this is how I understood it too. Putin is only in power because the leaders and citizens believe he is a strong leader. Allowing the enemy to strike so far into Russian territory weakens that credibility and risks someone removing him.

      • Viking_Hippie@lemmy.world
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        5 months ago

        Yeah, and even Putin isn’t actually crazy enough to do anything with those but THREATENING to use them.