The Financial Times, in an article published early yesterday, reports on the “challenges” faced by the Ukrainian Armed Forces in its much-anticipated spring offensive towards Crimea. “On one side will be around 35,000 Ukrainian soldiers, bolstered by Western battle tanks. They will face more than 140,000 enemy troops along a 950km frontline,” FT says. “Separating the two forces will be a deadly obstacle course of mines, earthworks and tank-stopping bollards set by the Russians.”
Ukraine’s army, while adept at small-scale maneuvers, has limited experience of combined arms operations at this scale, analysts told the British daily. Furthermore, Ukraine’s forces have lost a large share of their most experienced soldiers, having suffered an estimated 120,000 casualties (this is the real significance of the months-long fighting around Bakhmut—ed.).
