Comments by "Spring Bloom" (@springbloom5940) on "How did Ukraine retake so much territory from Russia so fast? | DW Analysis" video.

  1. In a few weeks you're going to see why Russia wasn't willing to fight over those positions. Everyone seems to have memory holed Ukraine's push to the border in this same place, in spring and what happened when they tried to reinforce their positions.
    3
  2. Brainwashed
    1
  3. Half right. The Kharkiv region's strategic value is greatly exaggerated. When Russia was taking it months ago, no one thought it was that important and Ukraine made no significant attempts to retake it; which is why defenses were light or non existent. Kherson is important which is why they threw thousands of men into a grinder trying to take it. US intelligence simply served them up a consolation prize by telling them which objectives were minimally defended, or outright abandoned and Ukraine just walked in. Right now the front is fully open and impossible to defend, so Ukraine just pressured the entire front and penetrated the soft spots. However, in a few weeks, the weather is going to close it and restrict movement to a handful of improved roads and narrow corridors that whomever occupies those positions, will have to supply and reinforce by. Those restrictive routes dramatically shorten the killchain, making occupying forces very easy to find and fix. Russia took the region to begin with, by backing off to deep defensive positions and just hammering the dogshit out of those routes with artillery and missiles, until reinforcement stopped coming. Then they just walked in. I anticipate Ukraine will try to hold out until winter and then vacate those positions too and just attempt to deny it to Russian reoccupation. The real problem for Ukrainian forces, is that when winter sets in and stabilizes the lines and fixes Ukrainian forces, Russia is going surge 20-30k troops and new uprated equipment into their rear fortifications, while beating on all those positions and routes with artillery and airstrikes. This will bring their troop strength up to ~90% of the initial force, but with better equipment and an established foothold.
    1