Yesterday, London’s The Guardian ran an interview with Col. Gen. Oleksandr Syrskyi, the commander-in-chief of Ukraine’s military, who declared: “I know we will win—and how.” The interview was an obvious pitch for more NATO military support, even as Dmytro Kuleba, the country’s Foreign Minister, was in Guangzhou, China exploring whether Ukraine could use China’s good services in pulling together a negotiated peace.
“Two and half years into Vladimir Putin’s full-scale onslaught, [Syrskyi] acknowledges the Russians are much better resourced,” The Guardian’s military reporter Luke Harding reports. “They have more of everything: tanks, infantry fighting vehicles, soldiers. Their original 100,000-strong invasion force has grown to 520,000, he said, with a goal by the end of 2024 of 690,000 men. The figures for Ukraine have not been made public.”
“When it comes to equipment, there is a ratio of 1:2 or 1:3 in their favor,” Syrskyi said in the interview. Since 2022 the number of Russian tanks has “doubled”—from 1,700 to 3,500. Artillery systems have tripled, and armored personnel carriers have gone up from 4,500 to 8,900. “The enemy has a significant advantage in force and resources,” Syrskyi said. “Therefore, for us, the issue of supply, the issue of quality, is really at the forefront.” It is this man-and-machine superiority that explains recent events on the battlefield. Since last autumn Ukraine’s armed forces have been going steadily backwards.
