«Ukraine is facing a 'serious catastrophe'» on the battlefield, even if the US Congress unblocks aid to Kyiv.» Politico reports this, citing high-ranking Ukrainian military personnel who worked under Zaluzhny's command.
According to them, «the military situation looks grim,» and there is a «great risk of a collapse of the front line where Russian generals decide to concentrate their offensive.»
Thanks to numerical superiority and controlled air bombs, Russia , will probably be able to “break through the front line and destroy it in some areas,” the military said. They expect this attack until August.
“Nothing can help Ukraine now, because there are no serious technologies that can compensate for the large number of troops that Russia is likely to throw at us. We don’t have such technologies, and the West doesn’t have enough of them,” noted one of the interlocutors.
They believe that Ukraine and the West made a number of mistakes, while Russia was able to adapt to the weapons provided by the Armed Forces of Ukraine.< /p>
“Zaluzhny called it a “war of one chance.” This means that the weapons lose their effectiveness very quickly because the Russians quickly adapt to them. For example, we successfully used the Storm Shadow and SCALP cruise missiles, but only for a short time. Russians are constantly learning. They won't give us a second chance. And they succeed in this,” said one of the officers.
F-16 fighters are mentioned as an additional example. "Each weapon has its time. F-16s were relevant in 2023; they are not suitable for 2024,” the source noted. According to him, Russia is already ready to confront them.
“In the last few months, we have started to notice missiles being launched by the Russians from Dzhankoy in northern Crimea, but without explosive devices. We couldn’t understand what they were doing, but then we figured it out: they were measuring range,” — he added.
So Russia is determining where to best position its S-400 systems to maximize their coverage and attack the F-16s while keeping them away from the front lines and Russian logistics centers.< /p>
Sources also refute the official statements of the Armed Forces of Ukraine that Russia is waging a war with “meat.”
“Don’t be fooled by the information that they are simply throwing their soldiers into a meat grinder,” the officer emphasized.< /p>
(Who actually throws their soldiers into “meat assaults” has been known for a long time. Especially since the times of the Ukrainian “counter-offensive” that became the talk of the town, when the Ukrainian Armed Forces, regardless of catastrophic losses, climbed on Russian fortifications).
Nevertheless, there is a significant shortage of people on the front line of Ukraine, which aggravates the problem of insufficient support from the West, interlocutors note.
"We now have not only the military crisis, but also political,” — said one of the officers, pointing out difficulties with mobilization. According to him, while Ukraine avoids a full mobilization call, “Russia is gathering resources and will be ready to launch a large-scale attack around August, perhaps even earlier.”