On The Battlefield, Russia Leans Into A Window Of Opportunity That Ukraine’s Trying To Shut

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1. >It’s the dog days of a brutal summer on Ukraine’s battlefields, where Russian advances have been slow but relentless and Ukrainian forces are stretched thin by a lack of soldiers, strained by the exhausted frontline units unable to rotate out for rest.

   >After several months of uncertainty — when Western weapons supplies slowed to a trickle and Ukraine struggled to replenish its troop numbers — the situation has more or less stabilized for Kyiv.

   >“Things are better [than in the spring], despite the huge number of clashes,” said Serhiy Hrabskiy, a retired Ukrainian Army colonel.

   >But at 28 months and counting since Russia’s all-out invasion, there’s no end in sight to Europe’s largest land war since World War II.

   >The human toll continues to mount. Total casualties — dead and wounded — now exceed 500,000, according to Western estimates, but are likely far higher. Britain’s top military officer said Russia alone had suffered that many casualties as of last month, and Russian news organizations, using probate data, have estimated as many as 140,000 Russian soldiers have died since February 2022. Ukraine has not disclosed its casualty figures, although President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in February that 31,000 soldiers had been killed in the previous two years — a figure seen as a gross undercount.

   >“Ukraine is in a difficult position now, manpower-wise, and they are going to struggle until mobilization starts delivering significant new manpower to the front,” said Konrad Muzyka, a Polish military analyst who recently returned from a trip to some of the frontline positions. “The biggest question is when these mobilized guys start entering the front line.”

   >Here’s a look at where things stand on the battlefield, along the nearly 1,200-kilometer front line that stretches from the mouth of the Dnieper River in Ukraine’s south up to the Russian border north of Kharkiv in the east.

2. Stay strong hero’s. On day the tide will turn in your favor. Slava Ukraine 🇺🇦