We’ve been hearing for weeks now about an anticipated Ukrainian counteroffensive against the Russian troops currently holding significant chunks of territory in the eastern part of the country. Ukraine has plenty of new tanks and advanced weapons to use in such an offensive thanks to some NATO allies and American taxpayers, so it’s been assumed that Volodymyr Zelensky would start using them at some point. But in an interview given to the BBC and other European news outlets yesterday, Zelensky said that his forces are not yet ready and a counteroffensive now would “cost too many lives.” So it would appear that at least for now, the status quo will be maintained and the war will consist of a series of skirmishes and endless rocket bombardments of the country by Russia. (AP)

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says his country’s military needs more time to prepare an anticipated counteroffensive aimed at pushing back Russian occupying forces.

Zelenskyy said in an interview broadcast Thursday by the BBC that it would be “unacceptable” to launch the assault now because too many lives would be lost.

“With (what we have) we can go forward and be successful,” Zelenskyy said in the interview, according to the BBC.

Zelensky was quoted as saying, “So we need to wait. We still need a bit more time.” But how much time will that be? The Russian army isn’t significantly less dangerous than it was in the beginning and they’ve somehow managed to keep their supply lines intact. They also don’t appear to be running out of ammunition and rockets as many analysts suspected, probably because they’re getting help from China.

It’s also unclear if a counteroffensive will be successful even with all of the new toys the Ukrainian military has been given. They were able to repel the Russian forces from the western part of the country near Kyiv impressively, but that was because the Russians had no established bases of operations or fortifications in that region. But as the linked report points out, Russia has been entrenched in Eastern Ukraine for quite a while. They have prepared battle lines as much as 12 miles deep, with minefields and trenches designed to stop tanks.

Out in that area, Russia’s troops won’t be fighting street to street and facing sniper fire from defenders as they were in the region around Kyiv. They will be firing from behind barricades, with supplies and ammunition stockpiled nearby. Both sides have lost a lot of troops, but the Russians still have significant numbers in the east. Also, Vladimir Putin has said that losing the territory he “annexed” in the east would be a red line that could lead to a severe escalation in the hostilities.

Call me a “Putin apologist” if you like, but do we honestly believe that Ukraine can pull this off and actually “beat” Russia? This war has dragged on for too long. Getting Russia to agree to go back to the pre-invasion boundaries and pull its military out might be the best we could hope for at this point. Someone needs to be working on negotiating a deal along those lines.