plawolf
Lieutenant General
Trying to bleed the Russians dry to stop them is just a none starter of an idea given the vast difference in combat exchange rates. The exact rates are hard to determine and highly politicised, but it’s pretty obvious that the Russians are enjoying a significant K-D advantage.
But even that is missing the main point that Ukraine has no viable war industry left and is entirely dependent on externally provided arms and munitions to maintain its resistance. Should foreign arms and munitions dry up, their war effort ends. Either they are smart enough to just surrender at that point, or they keep at it without heavy weapons and munitions and see their casualties skyrocket and surrenders when they collapse their own population.
The Russians know this, which is why they aren’t that bothered about launching big offensives to achieve a knockout blow. Why should they waste the lives and resources that will cost them when instead they can just maintaining constant pressure to force Ukraine to expend munitions and weapons at a rate far above replacement levels for NATO and just wait for NATO to pull the plug on Ukraine’s life support.
That is not to say the Russians won’t launch a major offensive if the opportunity arises. They are savvy and experienced enough to not let a good opportunity go wasted. They just aren’t under any political pressure to achieve arbitrary goals by arbitrary timelines so can afford to take their time and not be forced to needlessly waste lives and resources trying to force an opening.
The main exception is where Ukrainian units are within artillery range of population centres of newly captured territory. The Ukrainians shell those population centres to force the Russians to attack with some urgency to try to end the terror killings of civilians, which is causing the Russians to take heavier losses. But once those positions are taken, the Russians won’t have any pressure and can really dictate the pace of combat to minimise their losses while still maintaining unacceptable pressure on NATO weapons supply chains.
