By Daniel Davis
As events have continued to develop since the opening of President Volodymyr Zelensky’s twin offensives in Kherson and Kharkiv, we’re starting to get a clearer picture of both Ukraine’s strategy and the reasons for Russia’s losses. The West might want to temper its exuberance over Zelensky’s successes; however, as a comprehensive analysis indicates, little has fundamentally changed in the overall war since the offensives began.
That flies in the face of conventional wisdom, I understand, as many have been hailing Ukraine’s advances as incontrovertible evidence that the tide of war has shifted to Kyiv’s favor and that soon Putin’s forces will be driven out of more territory. As will be discussed in detail in this analysis (and a second part tomorrow), Ukraine’s Kharkiv offensive employed a fairly large number of troops against a small number of inexperienced Russian troops and wasn’t the resounding victory in a clash of titans as some have characterized it.
This piece was originally published in 1945 on September 19, 2022. Read more HERE.