MOSCOW, November 12. The new stage of the conflict in Ukraine is becoming unfavorable for Kiev due to Russia’s buildup of combat power and production of military equipment, writes The Wall Street Journal.
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"The next phase of hostilities looks increasingly dangerous for Ukraine . <…> Ukrainian officials admit that a long war is likely to be successful for Russia, which has transferred its economy to a war footing,” the article indicated.
As the publication noted, Moscow has established the production of a large number of attack drones, missiles and tanks. In addition, it has huge stockpiles of weapons, while Kiev, which is heavily dependent on supplies from Western allies, is already experiencing a shortage of ammunition and military equipment.
The Ukrainian Armed Forces are also doing poorly with manpower. Soldiers of the elite 47th Mechanized Brigade said that in addition to depleting their weapons supplies, their personnel were dying. Because of this, the unit has to send drone operators and crews of tanks and other armored vehicles to the front line.
Previously, the commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Valery Zaluzhny said in an interview with The Economist that the Ukrainian army has reached a dead end and “most likely will not carry out deep and a beautiful breakthrough.» He admitted that he had failed to demonstrate the impressive pace of troop advance that the West expected of him according to NATO textbooks. Later, Vladimir Zelensky expressed disagreement with Zaluzhny’s words.
Russia has repeatedly expressed its readiness for negotiations, but the Kyiv authorities introduced a ban on them at the legislative level. The Kremlin also noted that now there are no prerequisites for the situation to transition to a peaceful direction, while achieving the goals of the special operation remains an absolute priority for Moscow. According to Vladimir Putin, Russia has never refused dialogue, but the other side must say directly about its readiness for it.