Inside Ukraine's Possibly Fake Counteroffensive
Be skeptical of claims the Ukrainians are attacking southeast of Pokrovs'ke
The Ukrainian armed forces are in the throes of a desperate manpower crisis. They recruit far too few new troops every month to make good losses and allow for a healthy pace of rotations off the front line while also staffing the new brigades that the corrupt ground forces insist on standing up in order to create new command billets.
On the defense, the Ukrainians compensate for troops shortages by digging extensive earthworks, laying a lot of razor wire and deploying mines and drones. Lots of mines and drones.
But for the offense, there are few good replacements for old-fashioned human infantry. And while Russian forces in Ukraine are reeling amid intensifying drone strikes on their supply line, Ukrainian forces can’t always exploit every gap in the Russian line. Ukrainian commanders must pick and choose where they counterattack.
And that’s why it’s wise to be skeptical of reports of a Ukrainian counteroffensive near Pokrovs’ke in southeastern Ukraine’s Dnipropetrovsk Oblast.
