Ukraine frustrates Putin’s plan of a fast military advance
MOSCOW: Russia’s plans for Ukraine face rapidly rising costs due to delays caused by tougherthan-expected resistance from forces on the ground, even as its military retains overwhelming advantages.
A person familiar with Russian planning said the military would have hoped for faster progress. The Kremlin has declined to comment on details of the military operation, and its defence ministry says the campaign has been successful.
A senior US defence official said the US had indications that in the last 24 hours Moscow had become frustrated by slow progress, caused by an unexpectedly strong Ukrainian defence and failure to achieve complete air dominance. Still, with Russian forces closing on the capital Kyiv amid fierce street battles on Saturday, the official added Russia so far had committed only about 50% of its available firepower to the war.
Pushing back against a narrative that the invasion has stumbled and is targeting population centres, a Russian official also familiar with the campaign’s planning said it was on track and designed specifically to avoid urban warfare in cities.
The time frame for the operation’s military goals was between one and two weeks, rather than a few days, after which Ukraine’s military should be crushed and its government replaced with one friendly to Moscow, said the official, who asked not to be identified discussing sensitive matters. The official added that capturing cities, with the heavy loss of civilian life that would likely entail, was not on the agenda.
“Russia still has the initiative, but it is not really achieving the goals it wanted at this point because the Ukrainians are resisting,” said Pavel Felgenhauer, a Moscow-based military analyst for the Jamestown Foundation, a US think tank, adding that Moscow’s leaders may have been misled by their own belief in the strength of pro-Russia sentiment in Ukraine.