A US observer in Ukraine believes that Russia's spring offensive could already falter.
Vladimir Putin's troops are not making any headway.
Munich/Bachmut/Kherson - The Ukraine war has long been deadlocked on maps of the armed conflict between the Russian army and the Ukrainian defenders.
Apparently this reflects reality.
Ukraine War: Is Russia's Spring Offensive Already Stuck?
A 26-year-old US Army veteran who trains units in Ukraine and speaks to troops personally has now provided an assessment.
According to his thesis, the expected Russian spring offensive is already stuck.
"If that's the counter-offensive, then it'll falter," instructor Erik told the American news magazine
Newsweek
.
Erik, who doesn't want to reveal his real name for security reasons, continued: "We'll see whether it's a forerunner."
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Front near Cherson: Russian soldiers fire artillery at Ukrainian positions.
© IMAGO / ITAR-TASS
According to the report for the non-governmental organization (NGO) Mozart Group, Erik is in the Ukraine war and is helping on the ground training Ukrainian troops and evacuating civilians from the front lines, including those from the dramatically contested Bakhmut in Donbass.
"In conversations with the people we trained before - some of them just returned from Bachhmut - they said that the Russians just kept coming and coming and coming," Erik said of the soldiers' impressions at the front: " They just had so many people, even if they used them as cannon fodder.
The sheer number could be overwhelming.
So the Ukrainians are trying to counteract that.”
War in Ukraine: Russia's spring offensive makes no headway from Svatove to Wuhledar and Zaporizhia
As
Newsweek
writes, the alleged Russian spring offensive from Svatove in the northeast to Wuhledar in the southeast and Zaporizhia in the south is not making any real progress.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian troops are preparing a spring offensive of their own, which will be supported by new NATO weapons, the report says.
This may be a reference to the delivery of modern tanks from the west, which is currently starting.
For example, Ukrainian soldiers in Poland and Germany are currently being trained on the Leopard 2 system.
One thing driving the Russian offensive is the promise of tanks from the west.
US trainer for Ukraine troops (Source: Newsweek)
Meanwhile, US veteran Erik said he believes the announced supply of western tanks will increase the pressure on the invading Russian forces.
"One thing driving the Russian counteroffensive is the promise of tanks from the West," the US news magazine quoted him as saying: "The Russians are concerned about the influx of Western tanks and they want to make progress before Western tanks unite." have an impact on the battlefield.”
Among other things, Germany had confirmed that it would provide the Ukrainian army with 18 modern examples of the Leopard 2 tank.
The US will supply 31 Abrams main battle tanks and the UK will provide 14 Challenger 2 main battle tanks.
Ukraine War: Ukrainian army withstands Russian attacks at Bakhmut
Meanwhile, the reports have been around for weeks that Bachmut is about to fall.
Nevertheless, Ukraine does not give up the strategically important city, which is considered the last bulwark before the big cities of Kramatorsk and Sloviansk.
This fact alone is a reason for perseverance.
According to one analysis, there is a second one: inflicting as many casualties on the enemy as possible.
The American newspaper
New York Times
recently reported, citing Ukrainian commanders, that they wanted to hold the positions in the almost completely destroyed city for as long as possible.
So that the opponent is weakened in coming fights.
"The task of our troops in Bakhmut is to inflict as many casualties as possible on the enemy," Deputy Commander of the Ukrainian National Guard Volodymyr Nazarenko told NV Radio: "Every meter of Ukrainian land costs the enemy hundreds of lives."
Bakhmut in Donbass: Is even a Ukrainian counter-offensive possible?
A former military man no longer ruled out a Ukrainian counter-offensive in the Donbass bastion.
"The enemy is increasing troops in the north-west and south-west of Artemivsk," said Andrei Maroshko, a former lieutenant colonel of the pro-Russian Luhansk militia, according to the Russian state agency
TASS
.
He allegedly referred to Russian intelligence information.
Based on the number of troops and their equipment, he said, Ukrainian troops could conduct "both defensive and offensive operations" in Bakhmut.
Also because the Russian spring offensive is stuck?
(pm)
List of rubrics: © IMAGO / ITAR-TASS
