War in Ukraine
Friday’s offensive actions may be an effort to launch a major ground assault or it may be an effort to draw Ukrainian forces to that area so that Russia can then attack elsewhere, said Neil Melvin, the director of international security at the Royal United Services Institute, or RUSI, a London-based think tank. “For some months, Russia has been putting pressure on the Ukraine defenses, so that Kyiv is forced to continually move around its military forces to make sure that there is not a breakthrough,” Melvin said. “Through these actions Russia is seeking to shape the battlefield to its advantage — to try to create gaps in Ukraine’s defensive lines so that Moscow can then attack where the defenses are weakest.”
