I recommend listening to this podcast if you are a supporter of the Ukrainian effort. It’s upsetting but important. Farrell and Lapatina are Ukrainian reporters for the Kyiv Independent and not trolls (they want Ukraine to win). You can see how emotional and painful this situation is for them as Ukrainians and reporters (in this podcast). The podcast makes clear the very real challenges our Ukrainian allies face.
I too am rooting for the Dnipro push (and other efforts) to work. Slava Ukraine! I believe Ukraine can “win” the war but think we all need to look up from reading about Andriivka or Robotyne and look hard at the realities Ukraine faces long term with this war — particularly the shortcomings, issues that come with the Biden approach and lack of strategy for ending the war (which needs to happen in the near term, not long term).
It’s not clear how Ukraine can sustain or win an attritional war given Russia’s huge stockpiles of weapons and willingness to sacrifice hundreds of thousands of soldiers. Ukraine can’t do this without continued Western support (and it seems probable that this support will decline from the US and Europe in the medium to long term). I think Biden and his team got what they want — a stalemate — but I think they have made a mistake. The stalemate is not sustainable and will not keep Russia from pushing into Ukraine again. Biden needs to give Ukraine the weaponery now — e.g., long range Atacams — that can force Russia to the table or to look elsewhere. We need to think about how we can pressure the Administration to do this.