Russia and Ukraine's "war of attrition" has begun, says European official
CBSN
The "war of attrition" has begun in Ukraine, as Russian forces make a grinding push using heavy artillery shelling in the south and east of the country alongside deep strikes further west into Ukraine in an attempt to disrupt logistical supply lines used by the West. Predicting when the Russian offensive will end is very complicated, a European official in Washington told reporters Thursday.
In the long term, Russian President Vladimir Putin's objective is to capture the broader Donbas region, where Ukrainians and Russians have been fighting since 2014, as well as the land bridge linking mainland Ukraine to Russian-occupied Crimea. However, Russian forces — pushing from the east, south, and from the north area of Izium, in eastern Ukraine, while using heavy artillery shelling — have still not made much progress on the ground, the European official said.
The remaining part of the Donbas that the Russians are trying to secure has complex terrain with substantially sized rivers and urban areas. If they succeed in securing and moving past the southern Kherson region, the Russians could push on to the port city of Odesa further west. But this is unlikely because it would require a complex amphibious operation, and Russia also does not have enough troops in place to expand to the southern coast, the official said. If logistical access for supplies isn't secured, troop morale will collapse, the official also pointed out.