American strategists believe that Ukrainian troops are too spread out along the entire front line during their counteroffensive and should focus on the main direction – in the southern part of the country.
The New York Times writes that, according to them, the main objective is to advance on Melitopol and cut off the land corridor to Crimea for the Russians.
Ukraine is trying to breach Russia’s hardened defenses in the wrong places because it has too many troops, including some of its best combat units, US and other Western officials say.
The main objective of the counteroffensive is to disrupt Russian supply lines into southern Ukraine by cutting the so-called land bridge between Russia and the occupied Crimean peninsula. But instead of focusing on that, Ukrainian commanders have spread troops and firepower roughly equally to the east and south.
As a result, there are more Ukrainian forces near Bakhmut and other cities in the east than near Melitopol and Berdyansk in the south, which from a strategic point of view are much more important.
U.S. strategists have advised Ukraine to focus on the Melitopol front, Kiev’s top priority, and breaching Russian minefields and other defenses, even if that means more troops and equipment will be lost to the Ukrainians.
Only a change of tactics and a sharp move could change the pace of the counteroffensive, a US official said. Another US official said the Ukrainians were too spread out and needed to consolidate their fighting power in one place. There are signs that Ukraine has begun moving some of its most experienced fighting forces from the east to the south. The Ukrainian offensive has so far not developed according to expectations, which were for a faster breakthrough of the Russian defense lines.
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2023-08-23 12:54:00
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