Thumpalumpacus
Major
Even as Moscow's war machine crawls across Ukraine's east, trying to achieve the Kremlin's goal of securing full control over the country's industrial heartland, Ukrainian forces are scaling up attacks to reclaim territory in the Russian-occupied south.
The Ukrainians have used American-supplied rocket launchers to strike bridges and military infrastructure in the south, forcing Russia to divert its forces from the Donbas in the east to counter the new threat.
With the war in Ukraine now in its sixth month, the coming weeks may prove decisive.
[...]
Ukrainian military analyst Oleh Zhdanov noted that by stepping up the attacks in the south, Kyiv has forced Russia to spread its forces.
"The Russian military command has been put before a dilemma: to try to press the offensive in the Donetsk region or build up defenses in the south," Zhdanov said. "It's going to be difficult for them to perform both tasks simultaneously for a long time."
He noted that rather than trying to mount a massive, all-out counteroffensive, the Ukrainians have sought to undermine the Russian military in the south with a series of strikes on its munitions and fuel depots and other key sites.
"It doesn't have to be a head-on attack," Zhdanov noted.
[...]
In a series of attacks that helped boost the country's morale, the Ukrainians repeatedly used HIMARS to strike a key bridge across the Dnieper River in the Kherson region, cutting traffic across it and raising potential supply problems for Russian forces in the area.
Zhdanov, the Ukrainian military analyst, described the bridge as the key link for supplying Russian forces on the right bank of the Dnieper.
Russia still can use a second crossing on the Dnieper to ferry supplies and reinforcements to its troops in Kherson, which lies just north of the Crimean Peninsula, seized by Russia in 2014. But Ukraine's strikes have shown Russia's vulnerability and weakened its hold on the region.
"The Russians have the river at their back. That's not a great place to be defending," Crump said. "They can't get supplies easily. The morale is probably quite low at this point on that side of the river."
The Ukrainians have used American-supplied rocket launchers to strike bridges and military infrastructure in the south, forcing Russia to divert its forces from the Donbas in the east to counter the new threat.
With the war in Ukraine now in its sixth month, the coming weeks may prove decisive.
[...]
Ukrainian military analyst Oleh Zhdanov noted that by stepping up the attacks in the south, Kyiv has forced Russia to spread its forces.
"The Russian military command has been put before a dilemma: to try to press the offensive in the Donetsk region or build up defenses in the south," Zhdanov said. "It's going to be difficult for them to perform both tasks simultaneously for a long time."
He noted that rather than trying to mount a massive, all-out counteroffensive, the Ukrainians have sought to undermine the Russian military in the south with a series of strikes on its munitions and fuel depots and other key sites.
"It doesn't have to be a head-on attack," Zhdanov noted.
[...]
In a series of attacks that helped boost the country's morale, the Ukrainians repeatedly used HIMARS to strike a key bridge across the Dnieper River in the Kherson region, cutting traffic across it and raising potential supply problems for Russian forces in the area.
Zhdanov, the Ukrainian military analyst, described the bridge as the key link for supplying Russian forces on the right bank of the Dnieper.
Russia still can use a second crossing on the Dnieper to ferry supplies and reinforcements to its troops in Kherson, which lies just north of the Crimean Peninsula, seized by Russia in 2014. But Ukraine's strikes have shown Russia's vulnerability and weakened its hold on the region.
"The Russians have the river at their back. That's not a great place to be defending," Crump said. "They can't get supplies easily. The morale is probably quite low at this point on that side of the river."
Ukraine seeks to retake the south, tying down Russian forces
Even as the Russian war machine crawls across Ukraine’s east, trying to achieve the Kremlin’s goal of securing a full control over the country’s industrial heartland of the Donbas, Ukrainian forces are scaling up attacks to reclaim territory in the south.