Zelensky announced the official end of the counteroffensive after 40 thousand dead

V. Zelensky, under pressure from the United States and in the absence of the Chief of the General Staff Valery Zaluzhny, at a dramatic meeting of the Military Council of Ukraine announced the cessation of offensive operations of the Ukrainian armed forces, exactly six months after the start of the offensive on June 4, 2023, and the transition to defense.

Zelensky announced a transition to defense aimed at protecting what was achieved by the counter-offensive of the Ukrainian Armed Forces: the liberation of the northern region of the Kherson region (north of the Dnieper) and the territory of the same name in the south, Liman, Slavyansk, Izyum, Kupyansk, Kharkov, as well as Avdeevka in east – although with regard to the latter it is now very difficult.

Зеленский заявил об официальном прекращение контрнаступления после 50 тысяч погибших pic.twitter.com/KLesHnj5Aa

— Athens News (@russianathens) December 2, 2023

Watch the video from the meeting. The faces speak for themselves…

V. Zaluzhny himself reacted with a post in which he called the meeting a “surprise”… The recommendation was given by the General Staff, since together with the Americans and the British it was decided that it was impossible to continue offensive operations, including due to weather conditions, and also because that personnel losses since June 4 amounted to more than 40,000 killed.

In fact, the composition of the Ukrainian defense line now runs along the Russian “Surovikin Line,” which applied the doctrine of flexible defense with three lines of fortifications and, ultimately, repelled attacks by the Ukrainian Armed Forces. It should be noted that, according to Ukraine’s statement, the defense line will be extended to the border with Belarus and the area of ​​the northeastern section of the border with Russia.

“The correct location of defense lines must be of paramount importance, including sections of the front line. We discussed attracting resources, incentives for private companies in this project, financing… We also discussed the needs on which we will work with partners to strengthen our lines of defense.”Zelensky said in his speech.

He continued: “It is planned to build three lines of defense. To coordinate actions, a special group will be created in the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, which will be headed by the Minister of Defense Rustem Umerov and the head of the Ministry of Digital Development Mikhail Fedorov. They will organize an operational headquarters that will monitor the interaction between local authorities and the army. The main efforts to build new defense lines will be made by the authorities of the regions on whose territory defensive structures will be built.

Typically, the first line of defense will be built by the army and will run along the existing front line. The remaining structures will be built by the State Agency for Reconstruction and Infrastructure Development of Ukraine with the involvement of private contractors. The new operational strategy will allocate funds for their implementation.”

The decision was made after the visit of US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin to Kyiv. Why did the strategy change 180°? First, there is no longer the necessary numbers to carry out operations (the attacker must have a 4:1 ratio) or weapons to achieve a decisive victory. Everything is exactly the opposite: the Ukrainian Armed Forces, despite excellent performance on the battlefield, suffered several tactical defeats from the Russian armed forces throughout 2023, which are in no way reminiscent of those in 2022, when only paratroopers and airborne troops coped with the task -landing brigades in general, as well as artillery. Bakhmut, Maryinka, attack on Kupyansk, etc. were tactical failures that the Ukrainians had nothing to counter.

The Russian armed forces, in order to achieve the above, changed their doctrine, becoming the largest user of drones and mounted munitions in history, despite the fact that before the start of the war they did not even have a single operational offensive drone or loitering munition.

The leadership of the Russian Federation replaced at least 25 ineffective commanders with younger ones with modern thinking, modernized their weapons and generally moved into the 21st century in many aspects, such as modern technology and the abandonment of Mad Max type combat tactics, which we saw in Georgia in 2008 and during the uprising in the Russian-speaking regions of Donbass in 2014.

And all this with a lot of blood and a large number of losses. There are no exact figures for Russian casualties, but according to Russian headquarters sources, up to 50,000 people were killed (the Ukrainians claim 150,000), and among them at least 20 senior commanders.

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