The obvious question is what they want to do now.
Ukrainians are now very successful with their defence anchored around large cities. Russian attrition rates against this strategy are scaring Russians from further moves.
All their action for the last week was trying to take smaller, less defended towns.
Will Ukrainians risk compromising their very good defensive stance by repositioning troops for the offensive, while knowing that their numbers, and own offensive firepower aren't enough?
@jhungary
Probably a more poignant question is "What the Russian can do"?
As I said in my previous analysis before, Russia only have certain amount of time to conduct this operation. In the military, we call it "
Culmination Point" which is a point where the attacker no longer sustain their initial operation, to which the invasion is either stagnate or faulter. I wrote that it will be at the 28th days (Was going to write a post with this topic on the 28th days, that's why I came back here) Gen Ben Hodges famously said on TV he gave 10 days 3 days ago which would make it 30th days
Each component on field (vehicle, weapon, logistic and solider) have to be replace roughly 4 weeks after the initial operation in order to sustain an operation, otherwise what you see in 28th days or so is going to be where the line is going to be because without fresh input, there will not be any major progress, and I cannot see how Russia can replace those lost.
Bear in mind Russia is a big country (like REALLY big) which mean domestically, they are going to need substantial amount of soldier to guard their own country, take US in Iraq for an example, US have at no time giving more than 15% of National Force to deploy in Iraq, and it keep rotating every single year. Russia is estimated have put in 30-35% of National Force (The entire Russian Military) in Ukraine, which mean you will have to bring in another 35% of national strength to replace the one you has been using. Which mean it only left 30% to defend the entire country. (35% of the force are redeploy to Ukraine where the 35% initial force is home Recovering and Reconstituting, which left 30% available force to defend Russia) That is a big no in term of Military Strategy....That is why Putin mentioned "Syrian and African" fighter because they are running out of men to fight this war.
On the other hand, in case you have not realise, most Equipment Russian used in this fight is second tiered, like
@LeGenD said the top gear stuff is not deployed, and one can only guess why? If it was me, I would say from the training to actual performance of the Russian Force in this fight, deploying those stuff would only make them Ukrainian.......So, either they know their troop is not up to the task, or the general simply lost faith with the command structure and use second tier equipment instead, the reason being, I don't want to be here in the first place, so I am not going to bring my number 1 toy with me. Not sure if that make sense to you,.
for that you can use valuable metals and stones , there is no need to use foreign currency
lol how?
Bear in mind Russian bank is bar from settling all those item with money apart from oil and gas (Which will also be cut off if and when Europe get rid of Russian gas)
There is a reason why we all use money instead of trading item with item, even in Iran. Can you care to guess why?
www.reuters.com
