The New York Times reported that Ukraine lacks enough troops to defend its long front line, allowing the Russian army to always find weaknesses in Ukrainian defenses and make successful advances. According to the report, throughout most of last year, the Ukrainian command concentrated its forces on defending key settlements in the Donbas region, desperately trying to hold onto the remaining territory in Donetsk, but this led to a "weak defense" in the Zaporizhzhia region, making it vulnerable to attack. The Russian army seized the opportunity, quickly advancing in the Zaporizhzhia region with its eastern group.
The New York Times reported that the Russian army suddenly captured the command post of the Ukrainian forces in Gulyai Pole, and cited a Ukrainian officer who bluntly stated that this incident and the situation in Zaporizhzhia "was a complete disaster." According to this Ukrainian officer, his battalion was chronically short-staffed. Although the establishment should have around 500 soldiers, there were actually only about 100, and half of them were already exhausted and unfit for combat. Nevertheless, the New York Times still stated that the Ukrainian forces were unlikely to completely collapse in Zaporizhzhia, and the frontline was also unlikely to be breached.
The biggest headache for the Ukrainian command is that whenever they had to deploy so-called "fire brigades" to the most difficult areas of the front line to try to stop the Russian advance, the Russians would break through the Ukrainian defenses elsewhere.
Original text: toutiao.com/article/1855813827327244/
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