I think what he means is concentrating on Donetsk, instead of the Zapo-Donestk-Kharkiv-Luhansk front.
I would have created a Cauldron to bypass the strongest Donestk defenses by a flanking pincer move from the Luhansk. No need to directly assault their most battle hardened and powerful units, just bypass defenses and directly cut them off from supplies and reinforcements. I'm pretty sure this was proposed before Feb 24 invasion a year ago... someone posted a graphic of a Cauldron pincer move.
And learn nothing from the failure of that original plan?
The original plan was essentially a modern take on the classic blitzkrieg rapid manoeuvring assault.
That kind of assault depended on massed armoured assaults able to break through enemy lines quickly and basically steamroll the defenders.
The problem is that without air dominance to eradicate enemy artillery, any significant armoured formation will just get bombarded to hell by DJI corrected enemy massed artillery before they can even make proper contact with the enemy.
Add to that the vast number of mines seeded all over the place as well as all the trenches and flood of western infantry anti-tank weapons and massed armoured assaults are just going to lead to massed armour and personnel losses for little to no gain.
It’s not like the Russians haven’t been trying, but almost every one of their traditional massed armoured frontal assaults have been beaten back by enemy artillery with little to show for all the losses. They have tried a lot of tactics and the one that works best for their current situation is what they are doing now - broad front press to tie down Ukrainian forces so they cannot gather sufficient forces for major offensives of their own, and find choice locations to just bleed and grind the Ukrainians down at a sustainable pace for Russia.
This puts Ukraine in a bind, they cannot pull forces from the front without risking opposing Russian forces taking advantage and making localised gains and breakthroughs. The meatgrinders are bleeding then dry of men and material, but it’s politically unacceptable to pull out, and even if they do pull out, the Russians will simply find another choice location to push at.
This is why they are so keen to get massive western tanks, IFVs, artillery and fighters infusions so they can go back on the offensive, because the only time they weren’t loosing the war in slow motion was went they managed to achieve breakthroughs during their own offensives.
The problem and challenge for Ukraine is that the Russians are fighting smart and pull back rapidly and in relatively good order even when the Ukrainian do achieve a breakthrough. So they have not been able to catch and destroy any major Russian formations during any of their major offensives. So the cost-benefit ratio works against them even when they are winning, because the Russians easily yield land to preserve troops, while Ukraine pays a heavy blood price for those captured lands.
The only ray of hope for Ukraine would be if the reports of significant losses amongst Russia’s best fighting forces such as airborne, marines and special forces are correct. They might not be killing enough Russians during their past offensives for those offensives to be able to change the general course of slow motion strategic loss for Ukraine, but if they are killing a lot Russia’s best troops with those offensives, then potentially eventually a tipping point might be reached where they can inflict telling losses on the Russians if there aren’t enough of the elites left to pull Russian butts out of the fire.
Of course, Ukraine is also loosing a lot of its best forces in all the offensives and meatgrinders, so this is why it’s now a war of attrition to see who can grind the opponent down first. Again, in such a war, broad press is better and safer than narrow pushes.
