Training takes months, then deployment takes weeks and soldiers must rest and rotate. Time is running out in regards to spring and summer offensive. I now think it will be too late to greatly affect 2023 and who knows how the political and strategic military situation will be in 2024. I am hardly defeatist, but I am starting to worry for the End Game here. US also refuses ATACMS that can strike Russian bases and logistics for fear of escalation. I am worrying how Ukraine is supposed to recapture most of its territory.
Klishchiivka now confirmed lost, Bakhmut is looking in grave danger now. Supply lines in danger of getting bombarded soon and so cut if Russian advance continues.
it’s fairly disappointing, that so much is being wasted on defensive infrastructure when they need to be working on counter-offensive. it just eats up so much resources to sit there and play defence when they should be on the front foot.
Honestly, it’s king of the battlefield. In various anecdotes Ukrainian officers say they have to retreat when one shows up and that it takes several of their own to take one out with team work.
I had a look at the NATO website and the official news is largely a complete non-statement.
I saw something on Blomberg whereby Pistorius is supposed to have said that they wouldn’t block other countries training Ukrainians on Leopards. Reported here (non paywall):
It seems odd to spend time training unless they plan to send the things.
There’s a few cryptic messages from US officials as well. There’s definitely something going on that they aren’t making public. Not sure whether that is for military or political reasons.
me too. I’ve mentioned before, my mom’s side is Ukrainian and her dad was born there. was her birthday yesterday, we took her out for some good goulash. she didn’t want to talk about what was going on over there, but she’s got CNN on at home all day listening to the updates. saddens her a lot.
I actually wrote out something along the lines of “not everything they do will be announced to mainstream media, for the lack of the element of surprise. I just hope everyone is pulling in the same direction when it comes to support”
It’s behind doors because US is trying to browbeat Germany as reported by CNN. Yesterday, Lyod said he thought it would be okay (that he would manage to persuade Germany to okay Leopards today), today he said they refused to budge and it looked difficult unless US delivered, sigh, Abrams, which the US could not right now. But yes, Germany is going over its inventory to see what they can afford to deliver on some unspecified date in the future. I thought I reported it above, but maybe I forgot to post it in between. Full focus is now from US side to persuade Germany so you will hear no confrontational statements or official disappointment from the US. It’s a work in progress.
It might just be wishful thinking , but Austin and Milley appeared so tight lipped at the presser as to give the impression that they didn’t want to risk the possibility of any careless talk scuppering ongoing negotiations. That was my take away at least.
There has actually been lots of leaks. Just google the US defence jouros on twitter. I have posted some of them. Nothing official in terms of statements but they leak on purpose like a sieve to the media so we have a pretty good picture of what is going on actually.
