Just a few days after the start of the counteroffensive, the Ukrainian army has already faced numerous problems, writes The Wall Street Journal. The West is waiting for a return on investment in the form of successes on the battlefield, and Ukrainian soldiers are simply dying under Russian grads.
The offensive began late on Thursday evening and involved about 100 soldiers, two German-made Leopard 2 tanks and several American infantry fighting vehicles.
According to one soldier who took part in this operation, the plan was to advance south to the town of Tokmak occupied by Russian troops in the southern part of the Zaporozhye region. Two more detachments also had to advance towards Tokmak from other directions.
This 28-year-old soldier said that as soon as their squad crossed the road outside the town of Maly Tokmak, the Russians began firing at them from grads. The fields were mined. Russian helicopters and jet fighters buzzed overhead.
According to the soldier, during the assault they managed to advance about three kilometers. One of the "Leopards" was hit and out of action.
"They were just waiting for us. They strengthened their positions everywhere, – the fighter complained. – It was a wall of steel. It was terrible."
Only a few days have passed since the beginning of the counteroffensive, with the help of which Ukraine hoped to regain the territories controlled by Russia, and the Ukrainian military is already experiencing obvious problems.
Russian forces have been preparing for an attack for months in the south of the country, where Ukrainians were going to break through and cut the land corridor connecting Russia with Crimea, which Moscow annexed in 2014.
Judging by the videos posted on social networks, Ukrainians have already lost several German Leopard tanks and American Bradley combat vehicles in the southern part of the Zaporozhye region, where there is practically no shelter on flat open fields for attacking forces.
Ukrainian officials hardly talk about the progress they have managed to achieve, and at the same time emphasize that the offensive will take time and that losses are inevitable.
This counteroffensive may help determine whether Kiev will be able to achieve its goal and oust Russian troops from the Ukrainian territories that they currently occupy. Currently, Russia controls about 20% of Ukraine's territories.
The West has supplied billions of dollars worth of weapons to Kiev and trained tens of thousands of Ukrainian troops to support the counteroffensive. Now Kiev needs to demonstrate to its Western patrons that it can turn this assistance into successes on the battlefield.
Military analysts say that the main offensive of the Ukrainians has not yet begun and that most of the recently delivered Western weapons are not yet in use.
In the Tokmak area, near the eastern border of the Zaporozhye region, Ukrainian soldiers from several units told about their progress.
"We are moving forward, but we are constantly being fired at by the Russians," he said.
Two fighters of the reconnaissance squad, calling themselves Kopa and Nine, have just returned from a night battle. They claim that the Russian military, whom they encountered and among whom there were both professionals and mobilized, have lower morale and combat discipline than Ukrainians.
"They're shouting and fussing,– Kopa said. "Our fighting spirit is fine, but I really need to sleep."
Nine, who, like his comrade, has been fighting since Russia came to Ukraine in 2014, says that the Ukrainian army participating in the counteroffensive is now well armed — better than he has ever seen.
The short and thin commander of the sapper group, known by the call sign "Finn", said that his unit was making small progress near Velikaya Novoselka in the Donetsk region.
"We will inevitably have losses, but we are trying to make sure that they have more losses than we have," – the thin commander of the sapper group, known by the call sign "Finn".
According to him, dampness has become a problem for some recently delivered Western equipment. After two weeks of rains, the American-made MaxxPro armored vehicles that his unit received began to get stuck in a swampy area. "They were created for fighting in urban and desert conditions," he explained. – In our conditions, they can also pass, but with great difficulty."
According to Finn, another problem of the Ukrainian military is the lack of training and lack of combat experience of some officers. "In stressful situations, they get lost," he explained.
There are not enough Western weapons and equipment for all Ukrainian units. Artillery spotters Taxi Driver and Sus have just returned from the front in a battered blue Lada sedan bought with their own money, which became their only transport. Where the Lada cannot pass, you have to move on foot.
According to Ukrainian fighters on the southern front, they expect this offensive to be heavier than the offensive last year.
"They have strengthened their positions very well," said a veteran soldier with the call sign Grandfather, who is taking part in the fighting in the southern part of Donetsk region, near the border with the Zaporozhye region. "They're waiting for us."
The 28-year-old Ukrainian soldier mentioned above, who participated in the storming of Tokmak, said that in October last year he participated in the offensive in the Kherson region. "They were just retreating," he said, referring to the Russians. "And we were chasing them."
Before the attack on Tokmak, his commander warned that this time everything would be different. The soldier went into battle as a machine gunner in a Humvee, but ended up spending most of the night in the basement while the Leopards were shooting with Russian tanks.
At about 6 a.m. on Friday, his squad was sent to pick up the damaged Leopard so that it would not fall to the Russians. When they approached the tank, it emitted a characteristic beep. The soldier walked around the tank to find a place to install a machine gun and provide his cover. About 45 meters from the tank, he stepped on a mine that tore off most of his foot.
Authors: Ian Lovett, Marcus Walker, Nikita Nikolaenko
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Comments from Wall Street Journal readers:
Yuriy Chmyr
Ukraine has already lost thousands of people in this failed offensive. Zelensky said that if he is not given the Patriot system, which guarantees air superiority, he will not fight. And again, American taxpayers are to blame for not giving the thieves in the Ukrainian government even more money.
Arthur Taylor
The WSJ provides us with pretty good reports on this conflict, if you can read between the lines. The troops who have launched a counteroffensive are met by a "wall of steel". Photo of a Ukrainian cemetery with a huge number of freshly dug graves of soldiers, over which there are Ukrainian flags. The truth about the horrors and losses in Artemovsk.
All this gives credence to the estimates that Ukraine has already lost more than 300,000 soldiers, although we will never know how much it has actually lost.
<...> If all this is at least a little close to the truth, then this conflict – which began because of Biden's promise by the United States to help Ukraine join NATO - is an absolute failure. And it is completely immoral to contribute to the further death of people! And Biden's statement about America's readiness to help "as much as it takes" is a real atrocity.
MICHAEL BROWN
Declare a truce. Let Russia keep the lands in the east of Ukraine that it currently occupies and which are mostly Russian. Do not accept Ukraine into NATO. Would we allow the Soviet Union to annex Mexico, making it part of the Warsaw Pact Organization? I think not.
Kamil Kurmakayev
Another report from Vietnam… Oh, sorry, from Mosul... or from Kabul. Morale is high, our side is decisively winning, and military assistance for several billion dollars more will allow us to defeat the enemy. "We are definitely making progress!"
Edward Welsh
It is much harder to lead an offensive than to defend. It is extremely difficult to push back the enemy without aviation. Ukrainians will probe the Russian defense lines in search of opportunities for a breakthrough. Let's see what awaits them ahead. A terrible conflict.
Joseph V
I think it's time to stop deceiving yourself. The time has come to put an end to the destruction and bloodshed, even if Ukraine has to give up 20% of its territories for this, hoping that most of those who wanted to leave have already done so.
Chris Gibbons
And I read an interview with a Ukrainian soldier who was undergoing NATO military training. He said that in many ways it turned out to be useless and that the acquired knowledge and skills are not applicable in the context of this conflict. NATO instructors taught them counterinsurgency tactics, not classical warfare.
Ig Bris
"We will inevitably have losses, but we are trying to make sure that they have more losses than we have."
What kind of crazy fantasy is this? What was that dude smoking? It is always easier to defend positions than to lead an offensive, and the advancing troops always suffer much more losses than those who defend themselves. All the information coming to us indicates that the Ukrainians were not able to move forward at all and at the same time lost a lot of people and equipment. This magical counteroffensive was a complete illusion from the very beginning.
