Russian bloggers celebrate "glorious retreat" of russian forces attacking Ukrainians.

[DetlefK]

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2022/12/12/2141503/-Ukraine-Update-Russian-propagandists-show-how-to-turn-a-humiliating-defeat-into-a-great-victory

Sometime around Dec. 9 or 10, Russian forces mounted a major attack on the town of Velyka Novosilka in southern Ukraine. The Russian milblogger “Novorossiya Z.O.V.”, with 300,000 followers, reported the assault:

The decision to attack in the Velyka Novosilka area looks potentially dangerous for the right flank of the Ukrainian grouping in the Donbass.

Back in the spring, Russian troops had a chance to wedge in this direction 15-20 km deeper, but it did not work out.
If success is achieved now, two important operational tasks will be solved:

- access to the highway Zaporozhye - Donetsk, which is guaranteed to complicate the supply of the APU group;

- create a threat to the formation of the “Vuhledar pocket", which will save Russian troops from a head-on attack on Vuhledar through uncomfortable terrain and will allow three combat-ready Ukrainian brigades to be taken into the operational "semi-ring".

...

According to the latest data, ours in the Velyka Novosilka direction have returned to their original position. Everything was planned as an offensive, but in fact it took place as a reconnaissance in force. I am not exaggerating - everyone who was not involved in assault operations very carefully observed the enemy by all means and learned a lot of useful things. As for the offensive, the result speaks of insufficient readiness. But it’s also good that they didn’t cling to the advanced positions, left almost without a fight by the enemy, for the sake of a red piece on the map, and become targets in the shooting range.

Let's recap:
The Russians attack a strategic ukrainian position they desperately want to conquer.
According to the russian blogger, the russian troops had "insufficient readiness" for this attack.
The Russians hunker down in undefended terrain in no-mans-land.
The Russians get shot at by ukrainian artillery.
The Russians retreat from the undefended terrain they just conquered.
The blogger celebrates this as a victory, because the russian military learned a lot from this "reconnaissance by force".

[keithbvadu2]

1. Here's hoping they learn all the way back to Russia.

Did Susan Collins write this 'learning' dialogue?

[getagrip_already]

2. russian milbloggers have been threatened in no uncertain terms

To not go negative on russia's war effort. So they are getting clever in how they report bad news without popping any tripwires.

Even girkin has gone full snark while seemingly being positive.

Just a thunk anyway.