Posted on 07/16/2023 8:41:26 AM PDT by devere
...In early July, I set off eastward from Odesa to the Donbas, with the intention of taking a close look at this third phase of the war. I spent time with infantry, armored and artillery units in the frontline areas, and with various support elements. I concentrated mainly on the Bakhmut front, where the Ukrainians are currently making slow and grinding progress, reversing Russia’s declaration of the full conquest of the town on May 20.
Overall, as has been widely reported, the current counteroffensive has failed to make the rapid progress that Ukrainians and Western observers had hoped for.
So far, there have been no large-scale breaches of the Russian lines by Ukrainian armor, followed by a rush to deepen and widen the gap. Instead, artillery duels are taking place along the 1,200 km. frontline, with small and incremental gains recorded by the Ukrainians...
Despite the largely static nature of the fronts, this is a war that the Ukrainians at present appear to be winning. The latest figures suggest that Kyiv’s forces, using modern Western equipment and methods, have destroyed four times as many Russian howitzers as they have themselves lost...
Barring a major shift in this picture in the remaining two months or so that are available before the autumn rains begin, the prospect appears to be for an ongoing, grinding, war of attrition in eastern Ukraine.
For Ilya, Oleksandr, Oleg, and thousands like them – mobilized civilians crewing one of the most combat-hardened forces now in existence anywhere – it seems that it will still be a long fight ahead.
(Excerpt) Read more at jpost.com ...
You just might be the most obtuse person to ever post here.
Save hs from these prattling propogandizing fools. Please dear lord. Please.
Dunno. The competetion is fierce.
LOL, I thought they would be at the gates of Moscow by now based upon the hype in the western media.
Yup..BTW, didnt Kameltoe say something the other day that a reduction in population would benefit children? Cleaner air, cleaner water or some such?
Well, I got a solution for that skank. Lets get her and her filth all gathered into DC and have Putin drop a 5 mega ton on top of that hole and sterilize it.
She certainly did.
It’s sad to admit that I wouldn’t be sad if DC blew up.
Largely no different that nuking Hiroshima saved American lives.
And we refer to their “successful” counter-offensive as The Battle of the Bulge.
So when it took 8 months for the russians to take Bakhmut, they were defeated?
Whatever happened to the prediction that the Ukrainian army would collapse after the fall of Bakhmut and the Russians would be marching on Lviv? 🤔
LOL, are your "friends" in Kyiv, russian spies?
Right, 40+ countries are arming Ukraine because of "ethnic hatreds" and not because Putin has gone rogue, breaking numerous treaties by invading and annexing a neighboring countries territory.
Let’s be real...they’re all of Russian ancestry...
some are working just as hard against it right here in the US!!!
In the Bakhmut area - the UA has not committed any new forces.
They still hold 80% of the new Western equipment and all of the new nine brigades in reserve.
The main reason for the slow slog are the miles and miles of Russian mine fields. They can’t just be driven around. So de-mining takes place at night by special troops crawling into the fields and tree lines.
Mines are frequently fired in a cluster container by artillery - so a field de-mined today can be re-mined quickly.
Plus Westerners expect the Ukraine army to use the same tactics as used in the West, but that is not possible, since Western doctrine relies on Air Power and Air Supremacy to overcome fortified lines. Ukraine only has a tiny airforce made up of antique Soviet era planes like the MiG-29, SU-25, SU-24.
Ukraine and Europe are still waiting on the US to give the OK for pilot training on F-16 simulators. Any planes will not arrive until next Spring at the earliest. Far too late to help this offensive.
Then hook the little b***h to back of an oxcart for a city tour.
You mean WIDELY optimistic.
Other reports are far different.
At the strategic level, the conflict has increasingly tilted against Russia with the recent accession of Sweden and Finland to NATO, Turkey's alignment against Russia, and the failure of the NATO alliance's support for Ukraine to crack. For Russia and Putin, this adds to the woes caused by Prighozin's abortive rebellion. With sanctions biting harder on the Russian economy and more sophisticated weapons arriving in Ukraine, Russia cannot reasonably hope for a strategic victory anytime soon if at all.
At the tactical level, the Ukrainians are gaining traction at the front through better counter battery fire due to superior NATO radars and longer range and more accurate artillery fire. This may lead to the Russian front lines getting hammered into oblivion at key points by Ukrainian artillery.
At the operational level at which battles are fought, Ukraine has the tough problem of trying to conduct offensive operations with a numerically inferior force unable to sustain heavy casualties. That constrains how much punch they can put into a ground offensive. Can the Ukrainians nevertheless mount an effective offensive this year?
My guess is that they need more tanks, longer range missiles, and perhaps F-16s to pull it off. And those may not be supplied until next year.
Really? Can’t you do better than insults?
The other report are Russian propaganda - the Russians have not taken any ground since the few meters they took in Bakhmut, meanwhile the Ukrainians have taken back at least 150 sq km.
Click the upper right icon for English and the upper left icon for fortifications. Only Russian troops are shown
https://deepstatemap.live/
This is a joke to you?
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