How is the war going, considering the "strategically illiterate" commentary on the war. Making you think “the (US southern) border is way more important” is a Russian active measure. Russia devotes more resources to information warfare to divide Americans than it does to conventional warfare to invade Ukraine.
Ukrainian forces have managed partially to repel an increased tempo of Russian mechanized assaults in recent weeks despite ammunition shortages.[6] Ukraine’s ability to repel mechanized assaults with FPV drones is a partial mitigation, however, continued shortages of artillery deprive Ukrainian forces of the ability to destroy armored vehicles rapidly and in large numbers.
Russian officials continue to indicate that they are not interested in any meaningful negotiations on the war in Ukraine amid Switzerland’s announcement that it will host a global peace summit on the war on June 15 and 16.[26] Swiss officials stated that Switzerland will send invitations for the summit to representatives of over 100 countries and that the summit will include discussions of various peace proposals, including Ukraine’s Peace Formula and China’s vague 12-point peace plan.[27] The Russian Embassy in Switzerland reiterated previous Russian statements that Russia would reject any invitation to the summit and that any discussions about Ukraine without Russia are pointless.[28] Russian officials have repeatedly falsely blamed Ukraine and the West for the lack of peace negotiations, despite numerous public Russian statements suggesting or explicitly stating that Russia is not interested in good-faith negotiations with Ukraine.[29] The Kremlin continues efforts to destroy Ukrainian statehood and identity and fundamentally weaken NATO and has shown no legitimate indication that it is open to reconsidering these objectives.[30]
www.understandingwar.org/...
Much of the pressure on Ukrainian defenders comes from Russian glide bombs – enormous munitions capable of creating a crater 6 metres (20 feet) deep and 20 metres (66 feet) wide, with a destructive radius hundreds of yards across. Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba recently said Russia dropped 700 of these in just one week, and that the only way to counter them was to shoot down the aircraft that carry them.
“Russia is using glide bombs, along with direct-attack munitions, in volume to overwhelm Ukrainian air defence,” said the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS).
Glide bombs were originally inertial munitions retrofitted with wings to give them range, but the IISS recently said Russia had developed a smarter glide bomb that was satellite-guided.
On Friday, Ukrainian media quoted military intelligence and security service sources as saying Ukraine had struck four airfields using drones – Engels, 730km (450 miles) southeast of Moscow; Morozovsk, 870km (540 miles) southeast of Moscow; Yeysk, 1,000km (620 miles) south of Moscow; and Kursk, 450km (280 miles) southwest of Moscow.
According to the reports, Ukraine did most damage at Morozovsk, destroying six unidentified planes there, damaging another eight and killing an estimated 20 personnel.
The sources also claimed that two Tupolev-95 strategic bombers had been damaged at Engels and three Sukhoi-25 bombers had been damaged at Yeysk. Another seven personnel were reportedly killed at Engels and four at Yeysk.
“If confirmed, the possible loss of roughly five percent of Russia’s strategic Tu-95 bombers in a single strike would be notable,” said the Institute for the Study of War (ISW), a Washington, DC-based think tank.
www.aljazeera.com/…
- The Ukrainian military’s effective use of drones on the battlefield cannot fully mitigate Ukraine’s theater-wide shortage of critical munitions.
- Zelensky stated that there are no mitigations for insufficient air defense systems and indicated that Russian strikes are forcing Ukraine to reallocate already scarce air defense assets to defend Kharkiv City.
- Zelensky warned about the threat of a potential future Russian ground offensive operation targeting Kharkiv City, which would force Ukraine to reallocate some of its already-strained manpower and materiel capabilities away from other currently active and critical sectors of the front.
- The Ukrainian Verkhovna Rada considered and adopted provisions from Ukraine’s draft mobilization law on April 10 as part of an ongoing effort to increase the sustainability of Ukrainian mobilization over the long term.
- Russian officials continue to indicate that they are not interested in any meaningful negotiations on the war in Ukraine amid Switzerland’s announcement that it will host a global peace summit on the war on June 15 and 16.
- Kremlin Spokesperson Dmitry Peskov attempted to downplay tension in Armenian-Russian relations amid Armenia’s continued efforts to distance itself from political and security relations with Russia.
- Russian Investigative Committee Head Alexander Bastrykin claimed that Russia has no economic reason to import foreign labor, a direct contradiction of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s recent efforts to justify Russia’s current migration laws to his xenophobic ultra-nationalist constituency.
- Russian forces recently captured Ivanivske, a settlement east of Chasiv Yar, and advanced near Avdiivka.
- Eight Russian senators and 16 State Duma deputies submitted a bill to the Russian State Duma that would likely allow Russian authorities to deploy Russian Federal Penitentiaries Service (FSIN) employees to Ukraine, amid reports that Russia is intensifying its crypto-mobilization efforts.
Russian forces recently advanced northwest of Avdiivka amid continued positional fighting in the area on April 10. Geolocated footage published on April 10 indicates that Russian forces recently made marginal gains northeast of Berdychi (northwest of Avdiivka).[58]... Positional fighting continued northwest of Avdiivka near Novokalynove, Novobakhmutivka, and Berdychi; west of Avdiivka near Semenivka and Umanske; and southwest of Avdiivka near Pervomaiske and Vodyane.[61] Ukrainian military observer Kostyantyn Mashovets stated that Russian forces recently transferred elements of the understrength 27th Motorized Rifle Division (formerly 2nd LNR AC’s 21st Motorized Rifle Brigade) to the Berdychi area and elements of the 132nd Motorized Rifle Brigade (1st Donetsk People‘s Republic [DNR] AC) to the Novokalynove area.[62]
“Starving Ukraine of needed capabilities wasn’t a smart way for the Biden administration to avoid escalation, and neither is it a political master stroke by some of the administration’s Republican opponents. It is strategic and moral malpractice. It risks condemning Ukraine and undermining our own national interest.”
Mitch McConnell
The United States and other Ukrainian allies need to take several specific and immediate steps:
1. Provide Ukraine with sufficient military aid and other support required for Ukraine to restore maneuver to the battlefield.[73]
2. Support Ukraine’s effort to expand its defense industrial base (DIB) but also ramp up the US and allied DIB to support Ukraine in the medium term and to strengthen our own deterrence capabilities against Russia and other US adversaries.
3. Target Russia’s capability to sustain the war against Ukraine.[74]
- Deny Russia’s sanctuaries. Russia is not entitled to sanctuaries when it is trying to erase a nation. The West must abandon the Russian information line that Russia, having launched an unprovoked invasion of Ukraine, can demand immunity from attack with Western or Ukrainian weapons. The United States must remove any existing constraints on Ukraine to target legitimate Russian military and defense industrial capabilities in Russia. The West should also develop a long-term strategy against “sacred Russian cows” in the West, such as the Russian state nuclear energy corporation Rosatom. Rosatom is a major arm of the Kremlin, doing its bidding from Ukraine to the Arctic to Africa largely unimpeded due the Western economic interdependencies.[75] The long-term divestment from Rosatom is likely feasible, but it requires just that — for us to think in terms of a long-term strategy of denying Russia its capability sanctuaries.
- Focus on asymmetries. Ukraine has exposed numerous Russian weaknesses from the vulnerabilities of the Black Sea Fleet to the vulnerability of Russian defense industrial assets to Ukrainian drone and missile strikes.[76] The United States should amplify and accelerate not constrain these effective asymmetric warfare approaches that also impact Russia’s battlefield operations and force Putin to make hard choices about resource allocation.
- Target Russia’s capability globally. Putin is playing the full board, so should we – targeting Russia’s capability from Africa to the Arctic.
- Strip the Kremlin of its offset capabilities. The United States must defy the Kremlin’s efforts to alter our own decision making and will. The United States must also deny the Kremlin the luxury of time to regroup on the battlefield, and to rebuild Russia’s broader military and perception manipulation capabilities only later to be used against us.
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