Röpcke begins his speech by saying that the Ukrainian offensive doesn’t obtain important consideration from the worldwide media not solely as a result of there’s additionally a warfare in Israel, but additionally as a result of offensive operations truly petered out lengthy earlier than the Israeli warfare started.
The German analyst writes that Robotine was the biggest success of the Ukrainian offensive, after which many expected that the assault of the Kiev forces would acquire momentum, however The defenses of Verbove, Novoprokopivka and Kopani have been additionally not breached.
Röpcke additionally mentions that, in his opinion, the position of contemporary, western tanks and armored autos was solely to they helped the Ukrainian infantry as “armored buses”, however their fight worth was minimal on account of Russian drones and minefields.
Kyiv is strictly as removed from the Sea of Azov, or the liberation of main cities like Tokmak or Polohi, or a minimum of the reducing of Russian provide routes connecting Donbass and Crimea, because it was at the starting of June.
Röpcke evaluates the counterattack.
Röpcke can be fairly pessimistic about additional arms deliveries: he writes that he believes that whether or not Ukraine receives ATACMS missiles or F-16s, they will be unable to assist the combating as a “miracle weapon”.
Meanwhile, the Russians are always strengthening the Surovikin line. The possibilities of liberating Zaporizhzhia, Kherson or Crimea are reducing daily”
– writes Röpcke, including that in the east the Russians try increasingly offensives.
Röpcke – who, by the way, is overtly pro-Ukraine regardless of the harsh criticism – primarily blames Ukraine’s Western supporters for the failures, who hesitated an excessive amount of to equip the attacked nation with fashionable weapons.
Incidentally, we heard related opinions from the Ukrainian armed forces in latest days. An unofficial Twitter channel linked to the Ukrainian army lately wrote: the offensive functionality of the Ukrainian armed forces is totally exhausted, now a lengthy protection will observe.
Cover picture supply: Roman Chop/Global Images Ukraine through Getty Images. It exhibits a Ukrainian Leopard 1A5 tank on firing observe.