A lot better all the way around than what the White House trots out daily.
Place fear in the minds of Russian citizens in the regionThis looks good to me, and at first glance, makes me smile. However, and I'm no military strategist by any means, what is Ukraine's end game here? Do they think that Putie is going to allow this embarrassment to stand?
Ukraine has definitely managed to get well inside Russia's OODA loop!Russia Racing Troops To Kursk In Hopes Of Booting Ukraine's Invasion Forces
Four days into Ukraine's invasion of Russian territory, Moscow is trying to get a handle on an increasingly perilous situation.www.twz.com
Basically a mad, chaotic rush underway as Ukraine tries to consolidate some gains in Kursk and Russia pours assets into what was clearly an improperly defended front. Ukraine has committed to this operation with a significant number of personnel and Western armored vehicles. Good information has been extremely hard to find, but Russia has taken losses from convoys of equipment getting hit by HIMARS on the way to the new front, and Ukraine has taken losses from looks like direct CAS by Russian air. No air-to-air losses so far claimed by either side, which is interesting as some have speculated this offensive was intended to draw Russian air out to be engaged by F-16s and AMRAAMs.
PR move to kick the narrative of front collapse in Ukraine out of the news? Hail Mary attempt to grab some territory to trade in peace talks? Hard to say exactly what the intention is with this attack, but Ukraine is clearly in a situation where they had to try something. To their credit they seem to have achieved a remarkable level of strategic surprise over Russia.
I absolutely think Russia was caught in the complacency of attrition warfare on this one. Hell of a risk for Ukraine, though, if they get their salient surrounded they'll be in trouble. It's unclear how much of their fanciest Western hardware is on the line with this operation.Ukraine has definitely managed to get well inside Russia's OODA loop!
If they exploit it with another bold unexpected move, then the attack was likely a well constructed plan. If not, it was a hail Mary based on hope.
Maybe he should launch a 3-day special military operation to take Kyiv.This ain't good.
My guess is that the offensive will run out of logistical gas and the front will be static until the russians get enough of a logistical buildup to start an offensive of their own. Modern weapons with their high to hit probability and lethality have made this like a new WW1. It's always less of a logistical drain to defend than it is to attack.
The war will go on, and on, and on.
And all that $$ landing in politicians pockets.