Sumy region is most likely direction for Russian breakthrough – Telegraph
Russia's best chance for a breakthrough may be in the Sumy region, as Ukrainian troops are retreating to the area after an offensive in the Kursk region.
According to Censor.NET, The Telegraph reports.
According to John Hardy, deputy director of the Russian program at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, Russian operations are currently very limited in scale, and attacks are carried out by small assault groups. Company-level attacks of about 100 soldiers are rare. In addition, such attacks are carried out by infantry without support from vehicles, as there are not enough of them.
The increase in the scale of attacks is unlikely to lead to any significant results for the Russians.
"What we see is just a surge in the pace of the offensive... This is a very small scale. They can punch a gap in the Ukrainian line, but they are not capable of achieving a quick, rapid, significant breakthrough," Hardy said.
According to the estimates provided by The Telegraph, over the past year alone, Russia has lost 3,000 tanks and 9,000 armored vehicles, and at least 13,000 artillery systems have been destroyed.
"If you look at what's left in the warehouses, especially what's serviceable, the inventory is getting pretty low. I expect that by the end of this year, it will be very difficult for them to get more out, if not completely depleted," Hardy said.
Thus, according to the experts interviewed by The Telegraph, Russia's large-scale offensive is likely to fail.
As a reminder, the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced in late March that Russia was preparing a new spring offensive in the Sumy and Kharkiv regions. Later, the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Oleksandr Syrskyi, said that Russia's offensive against the Kharkiv and Sumy regions had actually already begun.
At the same time, the Sumy Regional Military Administration reported that the enemy had increased the intensity of assault operations on the border of the region by 30%.
According to the BBC, the Russian army is trying to create a buffer zone in the Sumy region. Also, one of the enemy's goals is to surround or semi-encircle Sumy.
The day before, it became known that there are no Russian troops in the Sumy region, but the occupiers are trying to break through into the region every day. The regional authorities decided to increase the number of settlements to be evacuated. These are settlements up to 17 kilometers from the border.
