Is there success in the war in Ukraine?
The counter offensive started in June, but since then, Ukraine had gained only a few kilometers at the frontline.
Advertisement of the Crimea Beach party. Photo: Saint Javelin.
In the spring of 2023, the head of Ukrainian intelligence, Lieutenant General Kyryllo Budanov, promised the Ukrainian army would enter Crimea as early as this summer. Many people believed it was possible. Even the famous brand Saint Javelin released a special capsule of clothing dedicated to the beach party in Crimea, with profits from sales going to buy drones and humanitarian aid to Ukraine. That party still hasn't happened, and it's clear it won't happen in the near future. As Oleg Sentsov, a Crimean filmmaker who spent 5 years in a Russian prison on false terrorism charges and is now fighting in the Ukrainian army, wrote recently, "Crimea is as far away from us as the Moon."
At the Yalta European Strategy conference held on 9-10 September this year, Budanov was no longer so optimistic. The counter-offensive operation of the Ukrainian army, which was widely announced at the beginning of this summer, has not yet shown successful results. This was first openly voiced by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky back in late June in an interview with the BBC, noting that war is not a TV show in which everything happens according to the director's wishes. Nevertheless, confirmed information about how the military operations are progressing and on whose side the successes are, does not penetrate the public very often - especially after the command of the General Staff and the Ministry of Defense restricted journalists' access to the front (I wrote more about this here).
So, are there any successes in the counteroffensive? If you look at the results achieved in three months, there are only tiny successes compared to what was planned.
DeepState map of the counter-offensive operation, September 14.
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