A senior military official said the real goal is to “liberate” Ukraine’s Donbass region.
London:
Russia has rearranged its war objectives in Ukraine in a way that would make it easier for President Vladimir Putin to win despite a bad campaign by his army, military analysts say suffered a humiliating defeat.
Russia attacked its neighbor by land, air and sea on 24 February and pushed as far as the capital Kyiv – where its forces have been stalled for weeks – in what Ukraine and the West say. attempt to overthrow the democratic government of President Volodymyr Zelenskiy.
However, on Friday, a senior military official said the real goal is to “liberate” the Donbass region in eastern Ukraine, where Russian-backed separatists have been fighting Ukrainian troops in past 8 years.
“The main objectives of the first phase of the operation have generally been accomplished,” said Sergei Rudskoi, head of the Main Operations Department of the Russian General Staff.
“The combat potential of the Armed Forces of Ukraine has been significantly reduced, which … makes it possible for us to focus our core efforts on achieving the main goal of liberating the Donbass.”
The Donbass, where Putin has accused Ukraine without evidence of waging “genocide” against ethnic Russians – has long occupied a prominent place in the light of Moscow’s grievances over Ukraine.
But if capturing the entire Donbass had been the goal in the first place, Moscow could have launched a much more limited and cost-effective offensive when it invaded Ukraine from the north, east, and south. .
“It’s clear they’ve completely failed in everything they set out to do and so now they’re redefining what it is to be able to claim victory,” said Ben Hodges, former commander of the force. US troops in Europe, said. European Center for Policy Analysis.
“It’s clear that they don’t have the capacity to sustain large-scale offensive operations… Their logistical problems are clear to everyone, they have serious manpower and resistance problems. The resistance was beyond anything they could have imagined.”
High cost
The cost of Russia’s “special military operations” is already very high. Rudskoi, the General Staff official, on Friday admitted 1,351 deaths among Russian soldiers. Ukraine claims the real number is more than 10 times higher.
Oryx, a Dutch military blog that documents equipment losses on both sides based on verifiable photos and videos, says Russia has lost 1,864 hardware including 295 tanks, 16 planes, 35 helicopters, three ships and two fuel trains. It verified Ukrainian losses of 540 items, including 77 tanks.
Each side makes regular statements about how much of the other’s equipment they are destroying, but does not confirm its own damage.
Impeded in its attack, Russia used the cities to ravage the ruins with rockets and artillery.
Nick Reynolds, a land warfare analyst at the RUSI think-tank in London, said: “Progress has stalled or at best very slow during this period.
“Its original strategy is now completely unattainable. Its original strategy was to behead the Ukrainian government or bring it down by simply sending troops into the country… that didn’t happen; quite the opposite.”
Russia has more work ahead of it to achieve its more modest goal of driving Ukrainian forces out of the east. Of the two regions that make up the Donbass, the country’s Defense Ministry says Russian-backed forces control 93% of Luhansk but only 54% of Donetsk.
Meanwhile, Ukraine appears increasingly confident.
Deputy Chief of the General Staff of the Ground Forces Oleksandr Gruzevich said on Friday that Russia would need three to five times more forces to capture Kyiv, and was being blocked in its attempt to establish a land corridor through the southern coast. to connect the annexed Crimea with the Donbass.
Hodges, a retired US general, said the question now is whether the West is brave enough to overcome its fear of an escalation in Russia’s use of chemical or nuclear weapons, which he believes. would give Moscow no tactical advantage – and bolster Ukraine’s support even further.
More equipment such as long-range missiles, artillery and drones, together with Western intelligence supplies, could allow Kyiv to switch from defense to attack, he said.
“We just split our support to Ukraine instead of flooding them,” he said. “It looks like we want to keep them unbeaten but we’re not willing to let them win.”
(Except for the title, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from an aggregated feed.)
