“Not a nice breakthrough”: Ukrainian army chief draws bitter conclusion about counter-offensive

class=”sc-29f61514-0 dXbCZE”>

After long, difficult battles, the Ukrainian army was able to achieve its first successes at the front at the end of September. With some breakthroughs in the east and south of the country, the troops of President Volodymyr Zelensky (45) gave hope for rapid progress.

But these were quickly suppressed. The major success reports have been missing for weeks. The fronts were paved shortly before the expected start of winter. There has been very little progress.

In an interview with The Economist, Valeri Salushni (50), commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian army, also draws a bitter conclusion. “There probably won’t be a deep, beautiful breakthrough,” Saluschni said. He himself assumed that the Russian troops could be ‘bled dry’. Russia has now suffered “more than 150,000 deaths,” Ukraine’s army chief said. ‘In any other country the war would be over. But not in Russia. I was wrong in that assessment.”

Russia is superior to Ukraine

Saluschni honestly admits that he himself did not initially analyze the slow progress properly. “At first I thought there was something wrong with our commanders, so I replaced some of them. Then I thought that our soldiers might not be fit for purpose, so I transferred soldiers to some brigades,” the army boss said. But none of that was of any use. Only belatedly did he realize that we were currently at a stalemate.

Russia is numerically, militarily and economically far superior to Ukraine. His troops would also notice that, says Saluschni. Nevertheless, there are ways to defeat the Russian army. New developments in the field of drones or electronic warfare are needed to outsmart the Russian side.

“There comes a time when there are not enough staff left”

“It is important to understand that we will not make any progress with current war tactics and equipment,” the army chief said. “It leads to delays and, as a result, to defeats.” New developments are essential to defeat Russia.

If these developments are postponed, it will only benefit Russia, Salushni said. Because then the war would drag on for a long time. “The biggest risk of a grueling trench war is that it could drag on for years and exhaust the Ukrainian state,” the army chief said. According to the Ukrainian army chief, the danger also lies in the limited number of soldiers. ‘We have to move forward. Because at some point, sooner or later, we will no longer have enough people to stand up to Russia.” (zis)

Source: Blick