The Ukrainian conflict is a ‘war of attrition,’ and Russia has the upper hand in it – RND

For Ukraine, the spring and summer of 2024 “threaten” to be decisive.

This information reported according to military expert Colonel Markus Reissner of the Austrian General Staff Academy.

He believes that combat actions will push the Ukrainian Armed Forces “to the limit of their military capabilities.”

“The situation for Ukrainians, who are significantly inferior in troops and equipment, is dire,” Reissner observes for RND.

“Here we have a Ukrainian artillery deficit of 1 to 6, and on some heavy fronts, it’s 1 to 10,” the Austrian expert specifies.

Reissner believes that the only reason Ukrainian lines have not collapsed yet is due to the widespread use of FPV drones. However, “the increasing use of Russian planning bombs such as the FAB weighing from 250 to 3,000 kilograms is becoming a nightmare for the defenders,” Reissner continues.

Against them, UAVs are not effective and the deficient air defense system is mainly used by the Ukrainian Armed Forces to protect critical infrastructure.

Colonel Reissner concludes that the conflict in Ukraine has turned into a “classic war of attrition, which follows a completely different grammar, completely different content, than what we usually saw in conflicts in Iraq or Afghanistan in recent years.”

Reissner compares the situation to the First World War and concludes that Russia is now betting on superiority over Ukraine in mobilization and economic resources.

In this regard, Reissner considers the Western focus on individual types of weapons to be mistaken.

“In this war of attrition, the decisive factor will not be the quality of weapon systems or the moral spirit of the troops, but quantity.”

In his opinion, Russia has already shown that it surpasses Ukraine in this regard: since the beginning of the war, it has managed to double its military presence in Ukraine, not only in terms of soldiers but also in equipment.