Russland skal ha trukket sammen 100.000 soldater ved Kharkiv i nord, samtidig som ukrainske generaler innrømmer at våroffensiven har gått i stå. De har ikke lykkes å bryte gjennom russiske forsvarslinjer, bortsett fra noen få steder.

Russia is building a force of 100,000 soldiers to attack the northern sector of the frontline as Ukrainian commanders start to admit that their counter-offensive has stalled.

Det er en formidabel styrke russerne har ansamlet:

Col Serhi Cherevaty, a Ukrainian army spokesman, said that Russia had also ordered Storm-Z ex-convict battalions to prepare for battle and was firing more than 500 shells per day at Ukrainian forces around Kupyansk.

“The enemy has concentrated a very powerful group,” he said. “More than 100,000 personnel, more than 900 tanks, more than 550 artillery systems and 370 rocket salvo systems.”

Den store optimismen på ukrainsk side har veket for erkjennelse av at bevegelse er vanskelig.

There has been a shift in the language used by Ukrainian commanders over the past few weeks.

Their optimism at the start of their counter-offensive six weeks ago and promises of cutting off Russian forces with a lightning strike towards the Sea of Azov have faded.

Instead, they started talking about slow but steady progress against well dug-in Russian defences and have now begun to describe how the counter-offensive has stalled with only an area half the size of Rutland recaptured. Most of these gains have been around Bakhmut and a handful of villages in the southern Zaporizhzhia region.

Tidligere har det sittet langt inne for ukrainerne å innrømme at offensiven går tregt. Men nå innrømmer øverstbefalende for hæren det til BBC:

Col-Gen Alexander Syrsky, the overall commander of Ukraine’s ground forces, told the BBC’s Today programme on Tuesday that Russian strongholds were holding back his forces’ advances.

“Our advance is really not going as fast as we would like,” he said.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2023/07/18/russia-massing-troops-attack-kharkiv-counter-offensive/