Ukraine’s counteroffensive gambit tests Russia across the front

Jack Watling, a senior research fellow at the Royal United Services Institute defence think tank, said the Ukrainian counteroffensive was not aiming to take back land with “a single decisive breakthrough”.“The Ukrainians tried an armoured thrust but the losses were such that they decided to pause and reset. The fighting is now attritional and aims to create weak points in the defences,” he said. “The Ukrainians are simultaneously attacking all along the front — Bakhmut, Orikhiv, Vuhledar — to wear down the Russian reserves so they can no longer plug the gaps.”