Ukrainian military chief General Valery Zaluzhny, during a Nov. 1 interview with The Economist, described the situation in southeastern Ukraine as a “stalemate” and indicated that he is looking for the kinds of technologies he thinks will create a breakthrough against Russian defenses. “Just like in the First World War we have reached the level of technology that puts us into a stalemate,” he said. The general concludes that it would take a massive technological leap to break the deadlock. “There will most likely be no deep and beautiful breakthrough.”
An army of Ukraine’s standard ought to have been able to move at a speed of 30 km a day as it breached Russian lines, The Economist continues. “If you look at NATO’s textbooks and at the maths which we did, four months should have been enough time for us to have reached Crimea, to have fought in Crimea, to return from Crimea and to have gone back in and out again,” General Zaluzhny said. Instead he watched his troops getting stuck in minefields on the approaches to Bakhmut in the east, his Western-supplied equipment getting pummeled by Russian artillery and drones. The same story unfolded on the offensive’s main thrust in the south, where inexperienced brigades immediately ran into trouble.
