The Ukrainian military on Monday started a long-awaited counter-offensive against Russian forces in the country's south, its southern command said on Monday.
I think Ukraine has plenty of manpower. They mobilized their entire population and have around 700,000 fighters.
What Ukraine doesn’t have is air and artillery support. There is no way an offensive will succeed if you are attacking someone with superiour firepower. Guys with rifles & javelins can defend cities against Russians, but this won’t help them retake cities.
Having 700k ““fighters”” (actually just people conscripted and given a gun) in the country does not mean having the manpower on the southern front. The two fronts are 400km away from each other and Ukraine has had no fuel to move troops with for 2-3 months. Russia began targeting fuel supplies as soon as they withdrew from the Kyiv front to prevent manpower being shifted from the northern front to the eastern front, Russia redeployed faster because of this and cracked the entrenchments that Ukraine had built up in the 8 years fighting LPR/DPR. Their line has been consistently losing ground in the east ever since then because their superiors do not allow them a proper retreat to a newly created entrenchment line (likely because they don’t have the manpower off the front to entrench a new line).
They have at best a couple thousand men down there with a short amount of supplies. Not enough for any offensive to last more than 10 days or so without considerably weakening other fronts and as I said before the cost of doing this in fuel is enormous. Russia have none of these problems, they have easy land access and the ability to drop pontoon bridges. In the worst scenario they fly the needed supplies out, it’s very simple for them.
The fact the nato strategists leading Ukraine’s war effort have made this offensive shows an act of desperation and a weird cope going on around the subject of thermal optics. They seem to think that these optics would be decisive but multiple waves have now completely failed to approach Kherson. The result of these offensives is that they’re decreasing defensive manpower down there. Situation is real bad for Ukraine. Worth noting that Russia don’t have enough for offensives down there either, neither do.
I think Ukraine has plenty of manpower. They mobilized their entire population and have around 700,000 fighters.
What Ukraine doesn’t have is air and artillery support. There is no way an offensive will succeed if you are attacking someone with superiour firepower. Guys with rifles & javelins can defend cities against Russians, but this won’t help them retake cities.
Having 700k ““fighters”” (actually just people conscripted and given a gun) in the country does not mean having the manpower on the southern front. The two fronts are 400km away from each other and Ukraine has had no fuel to move troops with for 2-3 months. Russia began targeting fuel supplies as soon as they withdrew from the Kyiv front to prevent manpower being shifted from the northern front to the eastern front, Russia redeployed faster because of this and cracked the entrenchments that Ukraine had built up in the 8 years fighting LPR/DPR. Their line has been consistently losing ground in the east ever since then because their superiors do not allow them a proper retreat to a newly created entrenchment line (likely because they don’t have the manpower off the front to entrench a new line).
They have at best a couple thousand men down there with a short amount of supplies. Not enough for any offensive to last more than 10 days or so without considerably weakening other fronts and as I said before the cost of doing this in fuel is enormous. Russia have none of these problems, they have easy land access and the ability to drop pontoon bridges. In the worst scenario they fly the needed supplies out, it’s very simple for them.
The fact the nato strategists leading Ukraine’s war effort have made this offensive shows an act of desperation and a weird cope going on around the subject of thermal optics. They seem to think that these optics would be decisive but multiple waves have now completely failed to approach Kherson. The result of these offensives is that they’re decreasing defensive manpower down there. Situation is real bad for Ukraine. Worth noting that Russia don’t have enough for offensives down there either, neither do.