The offensive is a few days old, still in its early stages, and Ukraine has not shown commitment to one set of objectives yet. They still have options on where to push and for now can switch goals if the opportunity presents. Which means, the Russian command can not be sure how to respond, or fully commit to any defensive response. Ukraine still has the initiative.
At the minimum, all Ukraine has to do is take back territory that shows they can deliver on what was discussed with allies, and hurt the Russian hold in Eastern Ukraine. If the operational and political goals are achieved, as long as Ukraine can make good on its losses, it is still a win for Ukraine. Ukraine is definitely taking and going to take more losses than they want. No way around it.
For the rest of the year, any Ukrainian win is a long term Russian loss.
They will take the Russians keyboard successes propaganda as a win, funny to hear 100-200 meters is minuscule yet it was proof of overwhelming success elsewhere like bakmut.
Regardless this will be a tough slog, losses will happen, valadar anyone????
My take on the video making the rounds is that those vehicles are not all destroyed and some reports say leopard is already back in service, who knows
Will wait to see. As the line goes nothing is happening till it does
I guess claiming a win on propaganda is a win for them, time will tell.
Russia has proven it is willing to take steep loses, for how long is the question. This is not the Soviet Union and this is not the “great patriotic war”.