Putin’s troops attack less often – that’s why

Russian forces appear to be attacking the frontline in Ukraine less often than before. This is reported by the renowned American think tank “Institute for the Study of War”, ISW. She quotes Ukrainian and Russian sources.

Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin’s troops continued to fight all along the front line, said the head of the Ukrainian Ground Forces Reserves, Ivan Tymochko. But their offensive potential decreases, they no longer make great territorial gains. The attackers instead focused on distracting and dispersing the Ukrainian troops.

The experts also quote a prominent Russian military blogger who also stressed that Russian troops are struggling to advance across Ukraine.

Russia is preparing for a counter-offensive

Both Ukrainian and Russian sources conclude that Putin’s troops are now mainly preparing for the expected Ukrainian counter-offensive. On the one hand. On the other hand, ISW experts from the think tank conclude that Russian forces are more likely to use artillery to compensate for their declining offensive capabilities.

Alexander Khodakovsky, former minister of state security in the so-called Donetsk People’s Republic and now commander of the Vostok battalion, says the Russian military leadership has almost completely stopped supplying ammunition to front-line areas where no active offensives are taking place. According to the pro-Moscow military leader, this also indicates in part that preparations are being made for the Ukrainian counter-offensive.

However, the ISW experts also conclude from this that Russia continues to rely heavily on its artillery to compensate for other shortcomings in combat, such as the lack of accuracy of the Russian soldiers, insufficient ground combat skills and the lack of air superiority over Ukraine.

According to the experts, the scarce ammunition for their artillery now contributes to the fact that Putin’s troops are no longer able to cope with these shortages.

(t online)