Emphasis Which All Of Us...

... who have any military and intel education and experience on both American and Russian side  have been saying non-stop about "Battle of Kiev" which... never happened. This is stated by my good friend Colonel Vladimir Trukhan starting at 42:00. 

Pay attention to what Vladimir emphasizes and which I soon will chafe my tongue in my videos by explaining that military victories are won on operational and strategic levels. This is what Vladimir says, AGAIN, Russian Armed Forces "never lost operational initiative for a day while having some tactical complications" (c). I may add--inevitable in the operations of such scale. Write down in your notes: Colonel-Operator of Central Apparatus of Russian Defense Ministry Vladimir Trukhan. This is how military professionals think on operational-strategic level, you also learn every day, because once you stopped learning--you are done as a professional. US military lost this ability to learn, or learned all the wrong lessons--this is why the "plan" of the "counteroffensive" to slice Russian defense in two by going for Melitopol and then cut land corridor to Crimea was done by military amateurs who never fought the enemy who can maneuver better than any NATO force can, and it could never work. 

Well, we all know how it "worked"--160,000+ casualties and 18,000 pieces of equipment lost by VSU in this "counteroffensive".  You have to have a real "talent" to be able to kill so many men and lose so much hardware. Do they teach these "operations" by collective Baghdad Bob and Iraqi Generals in the US Army Command and General Staff College in Leavenworth, Kansas? How else can you explain this unprecedented failure with catastrophic consequences for 404, not to mention the fact that it dramatically accelerated geopolitical collapse of the whole Pax Americana. 

For those who wonder what Operational Initiative is:

A set of created conditions, situation and objective circumstances that make it possible to impose one’s will on the enemy during an ongoing operation for a certain time in the corresponding direction. The side that has seized the initiative has the freedom to choose methods of action, directions and timing of strikes, and can solve assigned tasks in favorable conditions, while the other side is limited in its actions. Seizing and maintaining operational initiative is one of the most important factors in achieving success in operations. It is achieved by delivering preemptive strikes, surprise actions, more decisive, daring and active use of one’s troops (naval forces) and assets, gaining fire superiority, air and sea supremacy, and constraining enemy actions.

How you gain it--that's the issue of military art, a real one. It is not enough to talk about it.