Again, they needed Bakhmut to fall so the Russian can say they have achieved something, anything in this offensive, that's why they have concentrated every bit of their effort there. As I mentioned long ago, I expected Ukrainian to fold in Bakhmut almost a month ago, but that did not happen. And they are still fighting over Bakhmut....
This Russian offensive is probably the best chance they have, look at it this way, you have whatever of those 300,000 mobilised soldier being put into reasonable training (3 months, not enough but still, some better than nothing) and you have that sheer manpower put into the entire line. On the other hand, Ukraine have to conserve their resource, instead of bolstering their defence, they have to send around 50,000 troop back in EU or Rear to train for the upcoming offensive, where they will have to save up Artillery rounds, rockets, tanks in order to make a push later, with all those not available to the Ukrainian defender, they readiness gap is probably at the 2 extreme spectrum. And yet Russia failed to make any serious progress itself is telling you something.
Problem is, as I said, even if Russia can mass another 300,000 troop next year or end of this year, and do the same thing they do since September 2022, they are going to expect the same result, only that unless Ukraine failed at this counteroffensive and they are looking for another one in 2024, you will have a full Ukrainian defence line with Western Equipment and more troop than they have this winter to bolster the line, I mean, if the Russian failed in this counter offensive, than whatever happening next year does not look good for the Russian.
