‘There will most likely be no deep and beautiful breakthrough,’ says Valery Zaluzhny.
Russia’s war with Ukraine has become totally bogged down in the trenches, according to Ukraine’s top general.
And the prospect of a long war gives Vladimir Putin and Russia an advantage, Ukraine’s Army Commander-in-Chief Valery Zaluzhny said in a sobering interview with the Economist published Wednesday night.
In the five months since Ukraine launched an eagerly awaited counteroffensive, its troops have advanced only 17 kilometers through heavily fortified and mined Russian defense lines.
The counteroffensive has already disappointed many Ukrainian partners, some of whom are now demanding an end to military aid with the war deadlocked. However, the West’s cautious provision of weapons to Ukraine has allowed the Russians to mobilize thousands and fortify positions in occupied Ukraine, according to Zaluzhny.
Would that also help with insane amount of mines, trenches and dumb ww2era weapons Russian is using to hold ground. Which seems to be the crux of the issue. Just like Ukrain shown, holding ground and digging in seems to be very effective strategy that might only be overcome with sheer numbers (and death…). Ukraine hope was finding a weak point in defense and punching through, but it seems that there are no real “weak” points so far. The question is, can allies provide Ukrain with weapons that can help with breaking through current defenses? So far it seems traditional weapons however advanced, don’t solve the issue of dumb mines, trenchs, and dug in positions for either side…
They should be able get rid of the mine launchers that way, preventing more mines from being deployed rapidly. Already deployed mines are probably best dealt with by the new strategies developed by Ukraine this last year, UAVs with thermal optics showing differential cooling/heating.
Edit - didn’t address trenches and dumb weapons: the value of trenches goes way down without air support and communication. Similarly, without russian radar and anti aircraft, many dumb weapons become much easier targets. So, quite possibly, yes.
That makes sense. Hopefully Ukrain gets the agms, and manages to breakthrough. I think that’s the only hope, as I agree with others that the west will get tired and start to slow down support for Ukrain which will eventually lead to Russian victory. It become a war of attrition, if Ukraine manage breakthrough or outlast Russian ability to put ppl to grinder then they will manage to win, but honestly it feels as though Putin is ready to put everything on the line to win this…