The countdown begins: Putin only has two months left
General Jérôme Pellistrandi, doctor of history and editor-in-chief of Défense nationale magazine, warns of the inevitable passing of time. Winter is approaching and will cast a chill over positions on the front line.
According to the expert, the Russian strikes (236 missiles and drones) launched on 15 regions of Ukraine at the end of August are a punishment inflicted on the Ukrainians, Russia failing to find its way to victory on the battlefield. “Vladimir Putin wants to punish Ukraine! Russia is failing to win on the battlefield, so today it's a question of punishing the Ukrainians by carrying out strikes across the entire territory. Energy infrastructures are particularly targeted, with the aim of breaking the Ukrainian war effort.”
Jérôme Pellistrandi also speaks about the balance of power between the two enemy camps as well as Moscow's progress in Ukrainian territory, despite the offensive launched on Russian soil. The Russian army is advancing "in Donbass and is now getting closer to Kramatorsk, a large city of 100,000 inhabitants. The objective today is to gain as much ground as possible before winter. There are two "useful" months left before the autumn rains will freeze military maneuvers, on both sides. Each camp is therefore trying to score points as quickly as possible. There is also a political and geopolitical calendar, with the American elections on November 5".
On the Ukrainian side, the doctor of history specifies that the Ukrainian forces are realistic in their objectives and don't want to go as far as the Russian capital. “The idea is to have the most assets in hand in order to get to a position of strength when the negotiations are initiated between the parties. The whole difficulty is to know how far the Ukrainian army can settle in.”
He added that “from a general point of view, this Ukrainian breakthrough is a humiliation for Vladimir Putin, whose “special operation” launched in February 2022, never went as planned.”
(MH with Manon Pierre - Source: Public Senat - Picture: by Kremlin.ru via Wikicommons under license Creative commons CC-BY-4.0)