Ukraine Is Counterattacking All Along the Front Line

Russian troops marched too far, too fast—now they're over-extended

Ukrainian defense ministry photo

Russian Pres. Vladimir Putin was desperate to project strength in the weeks leading up to his Aug. 15 summit with U.S. Pres. Donald Trump in Alaska.

To Russia’s 700,000-person army of occupation in Ukraine attacked aggressively, some might say recklessly, all along the 700-mile front line—ultimately breaking through Ukrainian lines northeast of the fortress city of Pokrovsk in eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk Oblast.

The effort backfired. The Russian 51st Combined Arms Army failed to support its infantry marching through undermanned Ukrainian trenches outside Pokrovsk, leaving the Russian salient vulnerable to counterattack.

“Russia way over-extended,” American analyst Andrew Perpetua explained. And in at least three other eastern sectors in addition to Pokrovsk, the Ukrainians have counterattacked in recent days. Now the Russians are losing ground all along the eastern front line.