The Russian military has a new look at Ukraine: infantrymen on motorcycles running through no man’s land, depending on speed to escape Ukrainian fire. . . but unable to escape the swarms of drones that fly over the battlefield and can shoot down combatants. one by one.
George Barros of the Institute for the Study of War says it’s one of the new tactics Russia has used on 430 square miles of territory in the past nine months.
“At the moment, the Russians have the upper hand,” Barros said. “The Russians can determine where, when, the speed of the war and the intensity with which they wish to conduct offensive operations anywhere along this 600-mile front line. … This puts them within striking distance of some very vital land lines. communications [and] origin corridors connecting some of the most vital giant cities that shape the backbone of Ukraine’s eastern Ukraine defense.
But the value Russia is paying to achieve this progress is very high; According to Barros, the Russians are wasting between 25,000 and 30,000 infantry soldiers per month. By some estimates, Russia has suffered around a million deaths or injuries since the invasion began in February 2022.
However, Putin managed to make up for those losses and continue his ruthless and protracted war strategy: endless attacks aimed at weakening Ukraine’s resilience, along with threats of nuclear war against countries other than Ukraine.
Barros said: “Putin understands that what will make or break this war is whether the allied states that support Ukraine lean towards it or not. “
The United States took a step back when it suspended arms shipments to Ukraine for five months.
This delay occurred at the same time that the Russian Air Force was employing a devastating new weapon. Barros said: “The Russians have discovered that they can install those reasonable r-kits into bombs and turn their gigantic Soviet-era stockpiles of stupid gravity bombs into a precision weapon. “
The bombs spread their wings in flight and, guided via a GPS signal, hover toward targets 30 to 40 miles away, while Russian pilots remain outside the array of Ukrainian air defenses. “They can use their air force and 500-kilogram bombs to attack and destroy Ukrainian trenches, bunkers, strongpoints and fortifications,” Barros said.
Thousands of bombs and millions of artillery shells turned the battlefield into a lunar landscape of craters. One of them was a death trap for a Russian tank when a tiny Ukrainian drone attacked it.
Russia has tried to equip its tanks with more layers of armor, but with every measure comes a countermeasure, and American weapons are flowing back into Ukraine.
Barros said, “Until the Russians can convince the foreign coalition to continue to support Ukraine, the Russians have no chance of winning in Ukraine. »
As with all wars, it all depends on the will. “Political will is what is decisive for this war,” said Barros. “That’s not what happens on the battlefield; territories can be lost, ceded, and regained. But if we resolve to abandon the Ukrainians, they will lose. Honestly, the middle ground of this war is not the bottom. in Ukraine, still What is happening here in Washington, what World War II was like, what it is like today. ”
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Story produced through Mary Walsh. Editor: José Frandino.
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