Ukraine has had to transition to active defense, but still could lose the war

In anticipation of a new Moscow offensive, Kyiv is constructing 2,000 kilometers of fortifications to hold territory. Meanwhile, the Russian army is advancing confidently and achieving significant gains along the front lines in the south and east of the country. This is reported by the Financial Times.

Ukrainian defense strategists believe that over the next three to four months, Kyiv could lose the Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia, Dnipropetrovsk and Kharkiv regions. Valentin Badrak, director of the Kyiv Center for Army, Conversion and Disarmament Studies, stated that the Ukrainian military leadership is showing “a certain euphoria” and believes that Western support “will never cease,” allowing them to advance, thus they did not consider it necessary to build fortifications behind the front lines.

The order to build a new, more powerful defense was supposed to come at the end of 2022, at the beginning of the “mad pressure on Bahmut,” said Badrak, referring to the eastern Ukrainian city where a 10-month battle cost Kyiv thousands of experienced soldiers and valuable weapons.