“Russia will have lost in October” – 3 experts say how the war could end

Ukrainian soldiers of the 28th Brigade walk together at their position on the frontline near Bakhmut, Donetsk region, Ukraine, Monday, March 27, 2023. (AP Photo/Libkos)

An ETH expert’s statements about the outcome of the war in Ukraine caused a stir. Military economist Marcus Keupp claims “Russia will have lost the war by October.” However, there are experts who sketch a different outcome of the war. At the end you don’t see Russia.

No one can say with absolute certainty which scenario will eventually unfold. However, the thoughts of the next three experts are exciting and show possible further developments of the war in Ukraine.

Marcus Keupp

Let’s first look at the thoughts of Marcus Keupp. He believes Ukraine will launch an offensive with Western tanks in April. He says to the NZZ:

“Ukraine will probably advance from Zaporizhia through Melitopol to the Black Sea coast, splitting the front in two. With a swing to the west, they were then able to surround the Russian units between Melitopol and Nowa Kachowka. In addition, it could then place Himar missile systems on the coast, targeting military installations in Crimea and cutting off logistics. That will be the moment when Russia’s defeat becomes apparent.”
Marcus Keupp.

The ETH expert assumes that Russia will run out of tanks in the coming months.

“There are good estimates. One is from the Swedish Defense Agency FOI. The other is the IISS estimate from London. These institutes come to approximately 2900 operational Russian main battle tanks. Now you need to counter that with the loss rate. I use the Oryx blog for that. Here we are today at 1845 tanks that Russia lost – so about 5 per day of war. The remaining reserve of 1,055 is sufficient for up to 211 days of war.”

Keupp does not assume that China will arm Russia. He says to the NZZ:

“How would that work? The war material would have to be transported to the front by train. A Russian fire frequency of 50,000 artillery shells per day along the entire front alone – as in the summer of 2022 – would have required a freight train of 1,600 tons per day via the Trans-Siberian Railway. Not only would that be very difficult logistically, you would immediately see these trains on the satellite photos and then secondary sanctions would be imposed on China.”

The resources of the Russians are dwindling, while the Ukrainians are getting a “technology boost” thanks to the West, says Keupp. “Then there is really no other course conceivable than a Russian defeat.”

Stephen Kotkin

Stephen Kotkin has a different take on developments on the battlefield. The historian works at Stanford University and has written a three-volume biography of Joseph Stalin. Unlike Keupp, he believes that Ukraine in particular is facing a resource problem. In an interview with the New Yorker, he says:

“At its peak, the Ukrainians were firing and using up to 90,000 artillery shells per month. The monthly production of artillery shells in the US is 15,000. If you add up all our allies, everyone who supports Ukraine, that adds up to another 15,000 if you use the highest estimates. So you can produce 30,000 artillery shells while spending ninety thousand per month. We have not ramped up production. We are just depleting stock. Guess what? We’re losing them.”

In fact, the United States should be supplying arms to Taiwan, Kotkin explains. They’ve been behind for four years, but now the guns are going to Ukraine.

“Russia is allowed to produce about sixty missiles a month under the sanctions. This does not take into account what they buy back from Africa that they previously sold. What they try to get in deals with North Korea or Iran. The Soviet arsenal, the greatest arsenal ever assembled – much of it is rotting, but not all of it Some of the production is still going on, not as much as Russia would like, but enough to make the ‘if I can’t have it, no one can strategy.”

The Russian leadership also has no problem sending people to their deaths, says Kokin. The Putin regime does not value human life.

“If the Russian leadership throws 20,000 untrained recruits into the meat grinder and three-quarters die, what will they do? Do you go to church on Sunday and ask God for forgiveness? You just do it again. People talk about Stalin and the great sacrifices made by the Soviet people in World War II, when 27 million people died. They were enslaved kolkhoz peasants. He had millions and millions more. He threw them into the meat grinder and they died. And then he threw more in the meat grinder!’

Kokin therefore believes that there could be a solution if Ukraine recaptures only part of the country. In the disputed areas, there could be a demilitarized zone, such as in Korea. Despite the loss of territory, this could be a good solution for Ukraine, Kokin said.

“And if there is a Ukraine, whatever its share – eighty percent, ninety percent – that could thrive as a member of the European Union and that would have some kind of security guarantee – whether it’s full NATO membership, whether it’s a US bilateral, albeit multilateral involving the US and Poland and the Baltic and Scandinavian countries – that would be a victory in this war.”

Lucio Caracciolo

The Italian analyst Lucio Caracciolo paints perhaps the darkest scenario. “This war will continue indefinitely, with long pauses for ceasefires,” says the editor of the geopolitical magazine Limes. “It will not stop until Ukraine or Russia or both collapse, because it is a matter of life and death for both sides.”

The war in Ukraine is part of a global competition between the US, China and Russia. It’s about who will lead the world in the near future. Xi Jinping’s visit to Moscow should be seen as a signal to the West, he says in an interview with Il Riformista.

“In the sense that it is in Xi Jinping’s interest to form a de facto Russian-Chinese pair, with China taking the lead and Russia as a junior partner taking the lead in the non-Western world. In theory, it’s a clearly dominant world, if only from a demographic perspective, as people in the West make up just over a billion of the more than eight billion people.”

It’s not like there’s a bloc of 7 billion people supporting Russia and China, says Caracciolo. Nevertheless, the West faces the “devil’s alternative”:

“An all-out – ie nuclear – war against Russia or the gradual surrender of Kiev to its fate. A direct confrontation with Moscow, in which China would probably also participate, would be World War III. Of which there would hardly be a winner.”

Raven at war – in the Ukraine, soldiers are behind the DJ booth

Corsin Manser
Corsin Manser

Soource :Watson

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Amelia

Amelia

I am Amelia James, a passionate journalist with a deep-rooted interest in current affairs. I have more than five years of experience in the media industry, working both as an author and editor for 24 Instant News. My main focus lies in international news, particularly regional conflicts and political issues around the world.

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