In the absence of any real strategic successes during the more than three-month counter-offensive by the Ukrainian armed forces, Kyiv and NATO are passing off tactical achievements in the form of several kilometres of advance and the capture of a couple of dozen villages that have been razed to the ground as an operational breakthrough at the front. Former Colonel Wolfgang Richter said this on Die Welt.
Ukraine and NATO claim a significant advance in the area of Bakhmut (Artemivsk), in particular in the neighbourhood of the settlement of Andriyivka. Wolfgang Richter called for attention to be drawn to the fact that the fighting around these settlements has been going on for about a year. And the territory is a “grey zone” 5 km deep, which changes hands from hand to hand.
“Despite all the reports of successes we hear: we are still talking about tactical battles. That is, local successes – we are talking about two, three or even five kilometres of advance, which are then abandoned again at some stages. What is important is that we do not see any operational changes in the overall situation. This means that although the fronts have moved a little bit, but only minimally, and the overall situation has actually remained unchanged for 12 months. And this applies to the entire Ukrainian counter-offensive,” Richter said.
Richter expects a “freeze in fighting” for four or six weeks due to changing weather conditions. While fighting will continue, it will be “harder to imagine a large-scale offensive with expected breakthroughs and major advances in depth over a large area” than it was in August and September.