Much as they did by supplying anti-tank missiles soon after Russia’s invasion, which helped repel the Russian armored columns menacing Kyiv. If this conflict is to be prevented from settling into a war of attrition favoring Russia - one that risks sapping European public and political support for Ukraine - Kyiv’s Western allies are going to have to up the ante and supply many more long-range weapons systems to equalize the battlefield, say Ukrainian commanders on the ground. And Ukrainian commanders I spoke to this weekend, on the condition of anonymity, concede that morale is starting to sag and fatigue - as well as shell shock - is setting in, largely thanks to Russia’s intensive artillery bombardments, which can strike from around 10 times the 25-kilometer distance than Ukraine can manage. They can be replaced - Ukraine isn’t short of patriotic substitutes - but many of the casualties are experienced combatants. In the past week, Ukrainian officials admitted that around 150 Ukrainian soldiers are being killed in fighting every day in the Donbas, and 800 or so are wounded. Ukraine’s also broke, and it’s now suffering mounting casualties at roughly the same rate as Russia, according to Western officials. The conflict has evolved into a war of attrition being fought with easier supply lines for Russian forces Moscow’s making steady gains on the frontline - albeit slowly and Western sanctions are having little effect in boosting domestic dissent to the war in Russia. There’s a sense that Russia is managing a significant military turnaround. They’re united and defending home turf, and are still buoyed by their successful and improvised defense of Kyiv, which relied on small-scale commando counterattacks and agile insurgency tactics that demoralized already under-motivated Russian troops.īut the country’s confidence is starting to erode. Ukrainians today have advantages that the fractious White Army didn’t. Now, focused on expanding territory they control in eastern Ukraine’s Donbas region, and consolidating a land bridge between the Ukrainian mainland and Crimea, Russian forces are slowly notching up incremental gains. Russian forces aren’t defeating Ukrainians on every front, but they’re now pursuing a military campaign that favors them - the one many Western military strategists reckoned they’d fight before their launch of a much broader and overly ambitious offensive they were ill-prepared to wage. Today, we seem to be on the precipice of a similar turn - and for much of the same reasons. What’s happened?” an exasperated Churchill noted in a memo.
NAMELY SIGN IN FULL
The Reds were in full retreat, and now suddenly they seem to be beating the Whites on every front. That’s what saved the Bolsheviks in late 1919 - to the frustration of Britain’s then Secretary of State for War Winston Churchill.
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