In the conditions of a significant numerical superiority of the enemy, Ukraine is forced to resort to the tactics of slow retreat with fierce battles, trying to exhaust the aggressor. He writes about it The New York Times, analyzing the course of the war during the last year.
The publication notes that in recent months, Ukraine has lost control over a number of fairly significant cities, each after fierce battles that sometimes lasted for months. The first on this list was Maryinka in December-January, then Avdiyivka, the other day the ZSU left Vugledar.
While Ukraine's slow retreat may appear to outside observers to be a final turn toward military defeat, Ukrainian commanders and military experts deny this. According to them, now there is a struggle at the front, the goal of which is not territorial gains, but the exhaustion of the enemy in order to break his ability to continue the struggle.
Yielding to the aggressor in terms of all kinds of military resources and weapons, Ukraine is forced to "exchange territory for Russian losses," says Mykola Beleskov, an analyst at the government's Institute for Strategic Studies of Ukraine. The idea is to retreat from a city targeted by an aggressor after the Russians have suffered maximum casualties in an attempt to capture it.
“This war will not be decided by whoever controls Wugledar or other tactical frontline cities. It's about how many troops the Russians spent trying to capture Vugledar compared to the losses the Ukrainians suffered trying to hold it." — said Vienna-based military analyst Franz-Stefan Gadi.
However, given Russia's ability to compensate for its huge losses, the question arises as to how much territory the Ukrainians will be forced to give up before the Russian army is exhausted, notes the NYT.
Pasi Paroinen, a military expert from the Finnish think tank Black Bird Group, noted that over the past two months, Russia has advanced at a pace not seen since the beginning of the war and captured three times more territory than in June and July.
The NYT wonders how realistic Ukraine's strategy is, given that Vladimir Putin has put the economy on a war footing and shows no signs of stopping the fight.
Analysts at Britain's Royal Joint Services Institute have estimated that at the current level of losses and the pace of new production, Russia will likely exhaust its stockpile of armored fighting vehicles by 2026.
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