Ukraine preparing to strike back Russia? Experts propose best time, place for counter attack

Kyiv: As Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is set to turn a year old in less than two months and peace hopes fade away, experts predict that the war may soon reach a crucial turning point.

A report by Euronews quoted Peter Dickinson, Ukraine analyst at the Atlantic Council, saying that Ukraine has been quite, despite relentless Russian air strikes. He feels that Kyiv is “marshalling and holding back troops and ammunition for a new major attack on Russian positions.”

“They’ve got to maintain the momentum that they’ve built up: First in September with the capture of the Kharkiv region, and then in November with the liberation of Kherson,” he said.

He further said new offensive would also be “crucial to maintain the support of the international community”.

Dickinson said that the war would demonstrate whether huge financial and military effort by the international community for Ukraine is bringing results.

‘Strike while ground is still frozen’

The report quoted former US Army colonel Liam Collins saying that Ukraine have to counter strike before snow melts in spring, making unpaved roads difficult to use.

“Everybody remembers the flooding in the first stages of Russia’s invasion. It’s very challenging to conduct an offensive and move troops around in those conditions. Ukraine are going to want to stage this attack while the ground is frozen and in favourable state for them,” Collins said.

He further said Ukrainians have advantage over Russians as they can in fight low or sub-zero temperatures. “Those systems have been stressed for the Russians from the onset and weather conditions will only make that harder. The only advantage the Russians have in this conflict is mass,” Collins added.

Where should Ukraine begin attacking from?

Keeping in view the logistics, Dickinson said that the most obvious location for the offensive would be the south, straight down to the Azov Sea coast.

“Probably in the region of Berdyansk, perhaps towards Melitopol, to isolate from resupply the Russian forces that head towards Crimea,” he added.

He further said that such an attack from Ukraine side would be a bigger version of the Kherson offensive repeated in which the Russian forces were essentially cut off, blockaded and forced to retreat as they were not able to resupply themselves.

Meanwhile, Collins feels that more the Russians are forced to move backward, harder it will be to fight them.

He went on to say that by re-capturing large part of its territories, Ukraine has pushed Russians into smaller areas. Also, at the same time, Russian troops can’t conduct large scale fire manoeuvre as they don’t have the capability.

“It’s just massing their artillery, with little tactical and strategic value, and at a great cost,” Collins added.

“If Ukraine is effective with their advance and start bombing to hit the supply lines in the commandos of the Russians, we’re going to see them able to take up larger territories at some point during a large-scale counter-offensive, most likely later in the winter,” Collins said.

Send out false information

Dickinson feels that Ukraine should try to get the Russians off guard by sending out “false information”.

“Ukraine has proved very skilled at pulling surprises”, he said.

Russia began ‘special military operation’ in Ukraine on 24 February, 2022.

Read all the Latest News, Trending News, Cricket News, Bollywood News,
India News and Entertainment News here. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.