Russian Troops in Donetsk Ordered to Stop Fighting Amid Desertion: Ukraine

Russian army leaders recently ordered their troops in the Ukrainian region of Donetsk to temporarily stop fighting amid low morale and desertion, according to Alexander Štupun, the Ukrainian spokesperson of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

"In some areas of combat, including in the Donetsk region, enemy units began to receive orders from higher leadership to temporarily suspend offensive actions," Štupun said in a military operational update posted on Facebook late Wednesday night. "The main reason is the extremely low moral and psychological state of replenishment, numerous facts of desertion from the number of mobilized and non-compliance of combat orders."

"I think the halt in fighting in Donetsk mostly confirms what everyone already knew: that Russia's mobilization is not going smoothly and will not make a meaningful difference on the battlefield for at least the next several months," Kyle Haynes, Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science at Purdue University, told Newsweek on Thursday.

Haynes also said that Ukraine's ability to quickly move forces and supplies along the frontlines gives the Eastern European country the advantage of deciding when and where it would launch future combat operations.

"Russia's decision to halt its sputtering offensive in Donetsk suggests it is finally acknowledging this fact," he added.

'Increasing Evidence'

Matthew Schmidt, National Security Associate Professor at the University of New Haven, explained to Newsweek on Thursday that the temporary suspension of fighting in Donetsk indicates that Putin is "facing increasing evidence, that he can't hide, that there's a Russian military failure."

Russian President Vladimir Putin had given a September 15 deadline for Russian troops to push to the administrative borders of eastern Donetsk in efforts to take control of the region, Oleksiy Gromov, deputy chief of the Main Operational Department of the General Staff of Ukraine's Armed Forces, said earlier last month.

However, since then, Putin has repeatedly failed to take over the region, which was annexed by Moscow after widely criticized referendums.

By late September, Ukrainian forces had taken back the settlement of Yatskivka east of the Oskil River in Donetsk, according to Gromov.

"Our forces are improving their tactical position[s]," the Ukrainian online newspaper Ukrainska Pravda quoted him as saying. "Thanks to timely regrouping of the units of one of the mechanized brigades and high level of combat organization, we managed to retake the lost position and take the positions to the south of Bakhmut under our control."

Most recently, Ukrainian officials said earlier this month that Russia failed to advance in five different cities in Donetsk in one single day.

"Over the past 24 hours, units of the Defense Forces of Ukraine have repelled enemy attacks in the areas of Mayorsk, New York, Zaitsev, Nevelske and Pobeda," the operational update read at the time.

Ukraine also recently regained control of Lyman, a key city in Donetsk that was used by Russian forces for transportation purposes throughout the invasion launched by Putin on February 24. Russia said on October 1 that it moved its troops to a more "advantageous" position.

Russian Troops

Russian troops have been grappling with a number of issues as Ukraine took back some of its Russian-occupied territories amid counteroffensive operations in recent weeks. Putin's military has been struggling with poor leadership and faces difficulty recruiting motivated troops.

Those struggles combined with bolstered military support to Ukraine from the West weakened Russia and helped Ukrainian forces advance in the war. Ukrainian authorities said that their country regained control over thousands of square miles of territory in September and made key advances in October.

Haynes predicted that Russia's goal at the moment would be to prevent any further losses in the territories it occupied and make it hard for Ukrainian forces to carry out further counteroffensives.

"Newly mobilized conscripts simply won't have the training or equipment to conduct sustained offensive operations. But they can dig trenches, pile sandbags, move supplies, and generally help fortify Russian positions along the frontlines," the political science associate professor said. "Russia can no longer really choose where it wants to fight. Its goal is simply to limit Ukrainian advances until winter comes, and then dig in, deploy more troops, and resupply them before things thaw out in the spring," he said.

Meanwhile, Schmidt said that Russia's new recruits who were mobilized in Ukraine are "terrified" as they "barely know how to shoot and that can lead only to poor morale."

Despite Ukrainian successes and the Russian army's shortcomings, Putin is still persistent to keep on fighting. The Russian leader recently announced a "partial mobilization" of forces that involves calling up reservists and people who had already served in the army to fight in Ukraine.

Some experts think that Putin plans to make the Russian invasion of Ukraine as long and destructive as possible.

Newsweek reached out to the Russian foreign affairs ministry for comment.

Update [10/13/2022] 5:15 p.m. ET: the article has been updated to include comments by Matthew Schmidt, National Security Associate Professor at the University of New Haven and Kyle Haynes, Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science at Purdue University.