On January 25, 2023, we published in these same pages a forum titled Tanks for what? in which we basically argued that the delivery of the latest generation of Western battle tanks to Ukraine represented a new challenge for Russia, but it was not going to significantly change the course of the war, much less lead to a Ukrainian victory that we saw as implausible even then. Twenty-two months later, Ukraine’s war situation with respect to Russia is noticeably worse. Russian troops not only maintain practically all of the Ukrainian territory they occupied at that time, but they are advancing slowly but inexorably in the province of Donetsk, overcoming the opposition of the Ukrainian army, which has serious difficulties in replacing its defeated or exhausted soldiers. and the increasingly numerous deserters, while a majority of the population has gone from unconditionally supporting the war to declaring in favor of a negotiated peace. And they still have to go through a third winter with significant energy restrictions due to Russian attacks on facilities and power plants.
The only success that Ukrainian forces can claim is the invasion and occupation of a small part – currently about 1,000 square kilometers – of Russian territory in Kursk province in August this year. It seems that the government of Ukrainian President Volodimir Zelensky would like to maintain this position at all costs in order to use it as an element of exchange in future negotiations, although as a negotiating asset it would have little weight since the territory that Ukraine occupies in Russia is approximately one-hundredth of what Russia occupies in Ukraine.
#Missiles
