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    Scott Ritter: Ukrainian Counteroffensive's Second Week Ends in Failure Archived Message

    Posted by sashimi on June 18, 2023, 1:49 pm

    17 Jun 2023

    Operation enters the second week of Ukraine's long-awaited and highly touted
    counteroffensive, some basic conclusions can be drawn even though the fighting
    continues, and will continue to rage, for some time to come.

    First and foremost, the counteroffensive gambit has failed. While there is still
    considerable combat strength left in the Ukrainian military, including more than
    75% of the NATO-trained and -equipped 60,000-strong cohort Ukraine had assembled
    in the past eight months, fundamentally flawed assumptions about the quality of
    the force on which Ukraine and its NATO allies had placed their collective hopes
    for victory over Russia have been exposed. In short, Ukraine lacks the military
    capacity to overcome Russian defenses.

    Ukraine's most elite assault brigades, equipped with the latest Western military
    technology, failed to advance out of what Russian defensive doctrine calls the
    "cover" line of defense - the buffer that is designed to channel and disrupt an
    attacking force prior to reaching the "main" line of defense. Ukrainian
    casualties were extremely heavy, with Russia achieving a 10:1 kill ratio in
    terms of manpower, which is unsustainable from the Ukrainian perspective. The
    reasons for the Ukrainian failure are fundamental in nature, meaning that they
    cannot be overcome as things currently stand and, as such, the Ukrainian
    military has zero chance of success, no matter how hard they press subsequent
    attacks.
    -- Cont'd at https://sputnikglobe.com/20230617/scott-ritter-ukrainian-counteroffensives-second-week-ends-in-failure-1111243899.html

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