Financial Times apparently now finds it acceptable to report the news flash that Kiev may not prevail militarily over Russia. It cited Ukrainian commanders and Western analysts who say that, to make up for the shortage of soldiers, Kiev is sending air force pilots, engineers, medics and surgeons—everything but the kitchen sink—to the front line, due to the collapse of raw manpower in the infantry. “The average age is already above 40 in various brigades and there doesn’t seem to be enough reinforcements arriving on the front line,” says Franz-Stefan Gady, a military analyst and fellow at the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London, after a recent visit to Ukraine.
The article suggested that a “key battle is also shaping up in Russia’s Kursk Region,” parts of which Ukraine invaded in August, deploying some of its best-equipped units. The invading force was ultimately contained by Russian troops, and they would do well just to escape their present position.
