On Thursday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky acknowledged that the attack was “not quick,” although he added that Kiev’s forces were “advancing.” On Sunday, Kiev described the situation as complex, and justified its delay by saying that “the main attack has yet to come.”
A Ukrainian military expert presents to “Sky News Arabia” the reasons for his country’s delay in achieving its goal of the attack, indicating its readiness to launch another “wider” attack.
Move with trees and meters
According to the Ukrainian president, the counterattack is facing difficulties because it was launched late, and the West did not supply Ukraine with the necessary weapons, such as F-16 fighters. This gave Russia the opportunity to plant minefields around the fronts and prepare lines of defense, as reported by the German news agency.
CNN reported that Ukraine’s allies were concerned that the progress of the long-awaited offensive was being “measured in meters rather than kilometres”.
On Thursday, it quoted a Ukrainian soldier as saying that the minefields are very dense, and the forces trying to liberate the area are advancing “tree by tree”, indicating their slow progress.
She also pointed out the challenges facing the countries that support Ukraine, such as their suffering from inflation and increasing interest rates, and their leaders need to justify before their people as they face elections in the next year and a half, pumping massive aid to Ukraine.
Small operations precede the big attack
Ukraine says the goal of the counter-offensive is to recapture territory that Russia once held (Crimea, Donetsk, Luganstek, Zaporizhia, Kherson), but since the start of the offensive in June only several villages in the southeast have been recaptured.
The Institute for the Study of War (based in Washington) attributes this to the fact that the Ukrainian army is not currently attempting to launch large-scale operations, and is launching smaller attacks along the front lines that extend a thousand kilometers. To deplete the Russian reserves before launching the big attack.
As for the Ukrainian Deputy Minister of Defense, Ghana Maliar, she said in tweets on “Twitter”, that “battles are taking place everywhere, but the situation on the fronts is complicated.”
NATO rescue plan
To save the counterattack, Colonel Douglas McGregor, former adviser to the US Secretary of Defense, revealed Thursday that NATO is studying the possibility of sending troops to Ukraine.
He said on the Judging Freedom channel on YouTube that Poland and Lithuania are considering deploying joint forces in Ukraine, as reported by Russia Today.
Another rescue step, US officials told Reuters on Thursday, is that Washington plans to provide Ukraine with cluster munitions to support the faltering offensive.
These munitions consist of a container that opens in the air, dispersing large numbers of “bomblets” or explosive submunitions over a wide area.
Mine blockade
In his comment to “Sky News Arabia”, the Ukrainian military expert, Ole Danilov, sought for his country these excuses that hindered the attack from its goals, including:
• Russia mined millions of hectares of Ukrainian lands, including agricultural lands, forests and roads, and cities became completely surrounded by mines, such as Zaporizhya, Bakhmut and Kherson.
• Ukrainian forces march through deadly Russian minefields banned internationally.
• Kyiv lacks air supremacy; Which exposes it to repeated air attacks.
• The delay in Western weapons enabled the Russians to fortify their defences.
• The Russian forces prepared for the Ukrainian attack months ago, and fortified the battle fronts in an impenetrable manner.
Despite this, Danilov hopes for the continuation and development of the attack, stressing that “if it failed in its first phase, which took place with the participation of only 3 brigades, this does not mean the failure of the entire military operation. The army is currently preparing to launch a stronger and broader offensive.”
According to his assessment, Kiev “wants its attack to be strategic and planned to preserve the lives of its soldiers, and despite the obstacles, it liberated some towns and villages, and the slow pace of operations is part of the nature of the war.”
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