Ukraine is slowly retreating in Donbas, trying to wear down enemy - New York Times
In recent months, Ukraine has lost control of a number of fairly significant cities, each after fierce fighting that sometimes lasted for months. The first on this list was Mariinka in December-January, followed by Avdiivka, and recently the Ukrainian Armed Forces withdrew from Vuhledar.
According to Censor.NET, The New York Times analysed the course of the war over the past year.
Journalists of the publication note that for external observers, Ukraine's slow retreat may seem like a final turn towards military defeat. However, Ukrainian commanders and military experts deny this. They say that there is a struggle on the frontline that is not aimed at territorial gains, but at exhausting the enemy in order to break his ability to continue the fight.
"Being inferior to the aggressor in all types of military resources and weapons, Ukraine is forced to 'exchange territory for Russian losses'," added Mykola Beleskov, an analyst at the government's Institute for Strategic Studies of Ukraine.
The idea is to retreat from the city targeted by the aggressor after the Russians suffer maximum losses in their attempt to capture it.
"This war will not be decided by who controls Vuhledar or other tactical frontline cities. It's about how many troops the Russians spent trying to capture Vuhledar compared to the losses the Ukrainians suffered trying to hold it," said Franz-Stephan Gadi, a military analyst based in Vienna.
However, given Russia's ability to compensate for its huge losses, the question arises as to how much territory the Ukrainians will be forced to give up before the Russian army is exhausted, the NYT notes.
Pasi Paroinen, a military expert at the Finnish think tank Black Bird Group, said that over the past two months, Russia has advanced at a pace unprecedented since the start of the war, seizing three times as much territory as in June and July.
The NYT wonders how realistic Ukraine's strategy is, given that Vladimir Putin has put the economy on a war footing and shows no signs of giving up the fight.
Analysts at the UK's Royal United Services Institute have calculated that at the current level of casualties and rate of new production, Russia is likely to exhaust its stockpile of armoured fighting vehicles by 2026.
