“Ukraine has achieved irreversible momentum.”
-- US General Ben Hodges, Retired, November 3, 2022
“From a military standpoint, I still maintain that for this year it would be very, very difficult to militarily eject the Russian forces from every inch of Russian-occupied Ukraine.”
-- US General Mark Milley, January 20, 2023
In the episode, we look at the nature of wartime reporting and investigate how the circumstances of the Russia-Ukraine in February 2023 have changed so much that previous assumptions in 2022 are likely no longer true. Russia seems to have succeeded in its mobilization efforts in the Fall and are currently applying pressure on the Ukrainian front. Ukraine is due to receive modern NATO battle tanks and field a more capable army than the one which defeated the Russians last year at Kharkiv and Kherson last Autumn. How are these changes going to affect the battlefield going forward? What does each side need to attain their objectives? This episode looks at historical parallels into the past to help understand the current strategic position and what to look forward in May and June when both sides will likely launch offensives.