Russia retakes some land taken by Ukraine during counteroffensive

With Ukraine’s troops exhausted by months of grueling fighting, Russia is applying pressure all along the front line to reduce Ukraine’s ability to withdraw its units and replenish them for future offensives, said Jack Watling, a research fellow and specialist in land warfare at the Royal United Services Institute in Britain. “The Russians are going to have the advantage through the next few months,” Watling said in a telephone interview this week. He added, however, that “they’re not going to be able to decide the conflict in the next few months” because of Russia’s costly way of fighting, which entails accepting huge human and material losses for limited territorial gains.