A US official told CNN that Kyiv had now deployed the “main bulk” of its forces to the counter-offensive, something long seen as marking the starting gun for the key battle in the push.So the "spring offensive" is finally fully underway. And the Ukrainians want to take the town of Tokmak.Ukrainian officials told counterparts in Washington they would use reinforced battalions in an attempt to advance south through Russia’s defences in the town of Tokmak.
It's interesting that the Telegarpah reporting is based on what Putin has said, with some (as always) "unnamed" US sources adding the color commentary.
Of course, it's easy to see what Putin is saying, Russia has English language media:
‘Colossal difference’ between Ukrainian and Russian losses – Putin
Kiev lost ten times more troops than Moscow’s military in a recent major battle, Vladimir Putin has claimedThe Ukrainian military launched its long-heralded counteroffensive against Russian forces in early June, deploying strategic reserves onto the battlefield, including soldiers trained abroad, with Western-supplied military hardware.
So far, however, Kiev has failed to achieve any tangible gains on the battlefield, while sustaining heavy losses, with dozens of Western-provided armor pieces, such as German-made Leopard 2 tanks and US-made Bradley infantry fighting vehicles, damaged or destroyed in combat.
Has Ukraine achieved any tangable gains on the battlefield?
This is the BBC's map from a couple days ago:
So when you cut through the admittedly meaningless featured Orc articles, put aside the pro-Ukrainian and pro-Russian spink, the map looks pretty much like it did in January of 2023. Russia hasn't bit off another big chuck of Ukraine, but Ukraine appears to have made almost no progress in recapturing the "Russian Strip", not to mention Crimea (which they were supposedly going to do in the "spring offensive".
Wouldn't now be a good time to negotiate? The sort of DMZ that brought the Korean war to an end seems already in defacto existence in Ukraine.