David Axe
Forbes Staff
Yesterday 4:58 PM, May 5, 2022
The Ukrainian army reportedly has gone on the offensive in the country’s war-torn east. For the faltering Russian war effort, this is very, very bad news.
Ukrainian formations—apparently including the battle-hardened 92nd and 93rd Mechanized Brigades—in recent days began pushing north and east from Kharkiv, in northeastern Ukraine just 25 miles from the Russia-Ukraine border. Russian troops retreated east across the Donets River, blowing up bridges behind them as they fled toward the border.
The Russian army is advancing, too—seizing a few villages along the axis running southwest through Izium, 60 miles south of Kharkiv.
But the Izium offensive might be a prelude to disaster for the Russians. Ten weeks into Russia’s wider war on Ukraine, the Russian army is exhausted. Its best battalions are shattered. A dozen of its top commanders are dead. Tens of thousands of Russian and allied troops have been killed, wounded or captured.
All that is to say, the Russian advance is fragile. And it might get more fragile as the Russians keep pushing past Izium, thinning out their forces and stretching their supply lines. For the Ukrainians, that’s an opportunity. A potentially war-winning one.
Approved ~ Primus Pilus
Bugs Marlowe