I hate to say this, but my impression is that the Ukraine war has become a stalemate, a World War I style war of attrition. Both sides have absorbed huge losses of both men and equipment, and neither side has the ability left to move the map very much on the battlefield. So the war has become something of a meat-grinder, with thousands of men dying in hopes of moving the front lines just a few kilometers. There has been plenty of talk in the Western press about Russian losses and about Russian units that have been rendered combat-ineffective, but we never hear about Ukrainian losses and how well their units are holding up.
If the outcome of the war now depends on which side grinds down first, this new situation probably favors the Russians, since they are a bigger country with more military forces to keep moving into the battles. Right now we are hearing about HIMARS, but there are only 16 HIMARS launchers in Ukraine. Britain and Germany have supplied additional long range rocket systems but that only raises the total to 28. Meanwhile the Russians have many hundreds of artillery pieces that keep pounding Ukrainian positions day after day... while the Ukrainians have no counter-battery fire to silence the Russian guns.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidaxe/20...6625b0630d
(Translated from Ukrainian social media)
https://censor.net/ua/resonance/3358083/...myasorubka
There's talk on the internet that Ukrainian reinforcements have reached Pisky, but it might just be talk.
President Zelinskiy is reported to have said something to the effect that, "...despite US supplies of rocket artillery, #Ukraine's forces could not yet overcome #Russia's advantages in heavy guns and manpower: This is very much felt in combat, especially in the Donbas. It is just hell there. Words cannot describe it. "
https://twitter.com/KyivIndependent/stat...4092828677
My view remains that the United States should not introduce US troops into Ukraine. But that being said, the US should dramatically increase the amount of military supplies that it provides Ukraine. If we are the "arsenal of democracy", we need to act like it. Russia would bluster and threaten, but they won't start a nuclear war because that would mean the destruction of Russia. Today the US announced sales of large numbers of Patriot and Thaad surface-to-air missiles to Saudi Arabia and some other Gulf states. So why isn't Ukraine getting them too? That would effectively make Ukraine a no-fly zone for the Russians, without any need for US aircraft to enforce it. Ukraine's most desperate need is for large quantities of long range artillery. The problem there is that the US can only supply them rapidly by taking them from US Army stockpiles. The US, deindustrialized as it is after decades of "globalization", simply doesn't have the industrial capacity left to churn new ones out quickly. And with a potential west Pacific showdown with China looming on the horizon, the US doesn't want to weaken itself.
Which leaves Europe. Ukraine is a European country after all. Ukraine is Europe's turf, not America's. Collectively, the EU has a GDP as large as the United States. The Europeans have industrial strength that easily rivals Russia's and world-class technology. Europe should be providing the lion's share of military aid to Ukraine. Perhaps most European countries should be supplying up to half of their own long-range artillery to Ukraine. Why else do these countries have their own militaries? (I know, they are jobs programs to soak up young males who would otherwise be unemployed.) But at least on paper, they are to defend their own countries and Europe more broadly from any conventional external military threat. Which given their geography means Russia.
Well, Europe, this is it. Time for you to step up. The more Russia is ground down in Ukraine, the less threat it represents to the rest of Europe. Ukraine is fighting for all of you, so back them up! If not with your own troops, which shouldn't be out of the question, at least with vastly increased military supplies. It isn't on the United States to do that, it's on
you.