Two weeks after the start of its military counter-offensive, kyiv announced Monday morning the liberation of a new village. The Ukrainian soldiers come up against the very solidly protected Russian defense lines.
For two weeks, the kyiv army has been trying to retake the territories occupied by the Russians – some for 16 months, others for nine years. But the Ukrainian counter-offensive still very often stumbles against the Russian defense.
Does Ukraine communicate officially on its difficulties?
The Ukrainian general staff insists on this: its troops are progressing valiantly towards the south of the country. Proof of this is the reconquest, announced Monday, June 19, of the small town of Piatykhatky, in the Zaporijjia sector, where the yellow and blue flag is once again flying.
Since the start of the Russian invasion, Kiev has only communicated on what is to its advantage, the advances, the victories, and never on the human and material losses which are nevertheless inevitable, or on the strategic setbacks. It’s sort of the implicit rule of war, and the Ukrainians have learned to live with this unsaid.
And yet on the ground, the information that goes back seems to confirm that the Ukrainian losses have been significant since the start of the counter-offensive.
Why is the Ukrainian army struggling to advance?
In the areas occupied by Moscow, the Russians had all the spring to consolidate their lines of defense, they densely mined the fields and roads of the counteroffensive, which greatly slowed down the progress of the Ukrainians.
Moreover, the Russians have a big advantage in the air: their army has more combat helicopters, and above all more planes, which increases Ukrainian losses.
What are the consequences for the continuation of the counter-offensive?
Several sources, from Western intelligence or military analysis institutes, believe that the Ukrainian army could pause in its offensives, the time to rethink its strategy to try to limit its losses.
Time also to take stock of the information collected on the Russian lines: it will be a question of measuring whether breaches have been made in the enemy defense to rush in with more human and material means.
And finally the time that the F-16 planes promised by several Western allies, with their Ukrainian pilots trained on these aircraft, arrive and allow Ukraine to compete with Russia in the skies above the front lines.