by Larry Johnson at A Son of the New American Revolution
Take a good look at this map. From Kherson in the south to Yanshulivka in the north covers a distance of approximately 1000 miles. That is akin to the distance from Washington, DC to Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Or, to put it in European terms, that equates roughly to the distance between Paris, France and Warsaw, Poland. My point is simple — this is a huge amount of territory to cover in a ground war and requires both Ukraine and Russia to tackle the problem of where to deploy their respective troops, artillery and tanks.
One of the major problems Ukraine is struggling to solve is that its existing tank force has been degraded severely, which accounts for pleas from Ukrainian President Zelensky and General Zalushny for hundreds of replacement tanks from the West. Ukraine also is struggling to deal with its depleted troop strength and is forcibly “recruiting” conscripts as young as 16 and as old as 60. Ukraine faces the challenge of determining where to deploy its remaining forces in sufficient strength to blunt a Russian offensive.
Russia, by contrast, faces no such limitations. Russian factories continue to churn out new tanks to replace those lost in battle and has expanded its enlisted manpower by calling on reserves. Russia has one other advantage that it has exploited to great effect — i.e., it is able to train its forces in Russia in secure locations and equip them with the skills necessary to fight effectively on the battlefield. Ukraine does not. The replacements it has rounded up must be sent to NATO countries for training because Ukrainian military bases in Western Ukraine are vulnerable to Russian missile attacks.
The war in Ukraine is not confined to the steppes of Eastern Ukraine…
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