With New Missiles, Kyiv Sees Opportunity in the War Against Russia
But no one expects the conflict to end soon
U.S. Pres. Donald Trump invited Russian Pres. Vladimir Putin to Alaska for what Trump hoped would be a productive conversation about ending Russia’s then 42-month wider war on Ukraine. But Putin, the former Soviet spy master, just smiled and committed to nothing.
“We didn’t get there,” Trump complained as the lavish summit ended early on Aug. 15.
Now Ukrainian troops are bracing for many months—possibly years—of brutal fighting with a larger Russian force along a 700-mile front line. “The war continues,” Ukrainian Pres. Volodymyr Zelensky said.
But this isn’t the Ukrainian military of 2022—to say nothing of 2014, when the Russians first attacked. With more and better drones and missiles and a new approach to ground warfare, Ukrainian forces aren’t just holding off the invaders—they’re taking the fight to Russia and its oil-fueled economy.
It won’t be an easy fight. Though increasingly self-sufficient in weapons and ammunition, the Ukrainian defense ministry struggles to mobilize enough fresh troops to comfortably sustain its million-person military. And its ground forces, long segregated into incompatible brigades, have been slow to adopt a wider command structure that can match the scale of Russia’s own command.
But the challenges belie the bigger picture. After a galloping Ukrainian counteroffensive pushed back the initial Russian invasion force in the fall of 2022, the front line effectively froze along a wide arc threading from Kherson Oblast in southern Ukraine through the industrial Donbas region in the east and then north toward the oblasts surrounding the city of Kharkiv.
Ukraine’s second counteroffensive, in the summer of 2023, bogged down in dense Russian minefields—and barely budged the line.
In late 2022, Russia occupied around 19% of Ukraine. Today, it occupies 20%. And that 1% gain cost Russia hundreds of thousands of killed, wounded and captured troops. Ukraine’s own casualties were lighter: potentially half or a third as many.
Read the rest at Neue Zürcher Zeitung.
I post original stories to the substack every day which you can read in full with your subscription. But I do not earn a full living from substack, meaning I must freelance. As a courtesy, I also link to my freelance stories, in case you want to read some or all of them. Yes, some of those publications may have their own paywall. Can’t be helped.
16 Sep 25. David: When people (like myself) PAY for a subscription to your commentary, why do some of these columns -- like this one, where we are referred to another (German, this time) on-line publication to read the bulk of it -- then get hit with a PAYWALL there, which would require us paying AGAIN to read that column? Shouldn't we get access to the ENTIRETY of each column, just based on our initial subscription? Major Mike, Toronto, Canada