Lacking the basic artillery and armored vehicles needed to progress, Ukraine has focused on operations far behind the front lines. That includes a
mysterious attack earlier this week on a Russian air base in Crimea, a major supply hub for Russian operations in Kherson previously assumed to be out of its enemy’s reach.
The
progress Ukrainian forces had made here in recent months — recapturing a string of villages from Russia’s control — has largely stalled, with soldiers exposed in the open terrain.
The roads that soldiers zip along among the scorched wheat fields at the front lines are pockmarked with craters from previous strikes, guided by Russia’s Orlan drones that allow them to pick and choose targets.
“There is nowhere to hide,” said Yuri, who has fought here without a break since the beginning of the war, and like other soldiers did not give his last name, in line with protocol. His unit has a hodgepodge stock: modern antitank weapons and a Soviet machine gun manufactured in 1944, and the focus here is holding the line.
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Ukrainian military officials are tight-lipped on any timeline for a wider push, but say they need more supplies of Western weapons before one can happen. Ukraine lacks the capacity to launch a full-scale offensive anywhere along the 1,200-mile front line, one security official conceded.
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Although Ukraine has enough manpower to launch a push, Sak said that without more sophisticated weaponry there is a risk of sending troops needlessly to their deaths in an offensive with marginal chances of success.
Some Ukrainian military units are already paying a price. For nearly six months, Ukraine’s 28th Mechanized Brigade has fought along the southern front, stopping a lightning advance by Russian forces outside the city of Mykolaiv.
The unit’s battle-hardened fighters continue to claw back territory as they inch closer to Kherson. Despite being some of the best equipped and most professionally trained units on the front lines, withering Russian artillery strikes across the open steppe have maimed and killed many of their fighters.
In late July, the 28th Mechanized Brigade’s commander, Vitalii Huliaiev, was killed in action and his fellow soldiers intend to avenge his death.
“We will get to Kherson,” said a battalion commander for the unit who goes by the call sign Zloi, which translates as Angry or Mean. “We will have our revenge.”
