Chief spokesperson for the Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation
This is the Battle of the Bulge 2.0. The Germans pushed their unsustainable counteroffensive for the Goebbels headlines and they were on a high for a few weeks too before reality set in. Here we have a two front offensive: Kherson, which cost Zelenski thousands of dead and wounded and was easily rolled up, and now Kharkov which was the weakest point in the line and which they’re throwing their last effective troops at. The Russians will take their time on this, grinding them down and regaining it all just like they did with the last Kharkov offensive in May.
Chief spokesperson for the Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation
How many paratroopers do you have left alive btw?
You have a strange idea of this situation.
This is not a failed breakthrough, which the Bulge was, stopped from exploitation by “hard shoulders” (there are no hard anything vis a vis the Russians now), several blocking forces that imposed major delays and chokepoints (St. Vith, Bastogne), and an impenetrable stop line before the Meuse. And then the vastly superior Allied reserves came in and stomped what was left.
The Ukrainians cracked the Russian lines and then...drove through next to no significant opposition, and haven’t seen it yet. Since then they have been in exploitation mode This is not over by any means, the Russian rear areas still seem wide open to rampaging Ukrainians. I suspect the only things holding the Ukes back is that they are outrunning their supplies, and simple exhaustion. And there are, so far, no Russian reserves ready to counterattack.
This is more akin to Sharon and Tal’s Israeli breakthrough and exploitation in 1967.
To the extent that analogy would have even the vaguest applicability, Russia surrendered Bastogne (Izium) without a fight, and the Ukrainians reached the Meuse (Oskil) ahead of schedule.
