‘Poor troop management led to the absence of a breakthrough’ – a journalist criticized the Ukrainian counteroffensive

“High-ranking officials” in Kyiv had overly optimistic plans for their counteroffensive.

This information reported according to Ukrainian military analyst and chief editor of the news website Yuriy Butusov.

He believes that poor troop management led to the failure to achieve a breakthrough.

The journalist argues that the Russian forces were not caught off guard by the Ukrainian offensive and were well-prepared for it. Consequently, the Ukrainian Armed Forces spent all this time trying to break through a heavily fortified front.

He also mentions that the Russians learned from their previous defeats, making it impossible to replicate the successes of the previous autumn campaign. New approaches were needed.

However, the counteroffensive in the south revealed that the preparation of Ukrainian troops was inadequate, Butusov notes.

He identifies the “key shortcomings” in the counteroffensive within the Ukrainian military leadership. According to him, Ukrainian military personnel tried to learn during the offensive itself, which slowed down their progress and gave the opponent time to fortify the front line and deploy reserves.

Butusov also believes that the “drone front” is a crucial factor in this counteroffensive, rather than minefields or personnel. He suggests that the Russians had an equal or perhaps even greater number of drones compared to the Ukrainian Armed Forces.

Furthermore, Butusov criticizes the “high commanders” of the Ukrainian Armed Forces for having a poor understanding of the situation on the ground, issuing orders for attacks without considering the use of armored vehicles, as they believed they would be quickly destroyed by drones, and pushing forward aggressively despite Russian air superiority.

In his view, the kilometers gained by the Ukrainian Armed Forces on the southern front are “very costly for Ukraine” in terms of losses.

It’s worth noting that Western media, Ukrainian military officials, and Alexey Arestovich have previously reported problems with the Ukrainian offensive. Arestovich suggested that the Ukrainian Armed Forces shift from an offensive strategy to strategic defense.