Retired Lieutenant General Ben Hodges, the former commander-in-chief of US military forces in Europe, said he believes Russian forces will not be able to capture the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, due to the size of the city. and the resistance being mounted not only for the Ukrainian army, but for its citizens.
Hodges said he predicted “much more destruction and fighting” in and around Kyiv, but predicted that the capital “will not fall” and that “the Russians will not be able to take it.”
The “initial strategy” of Russian President Vladimir Putin, when he invaded Ukraine, to quickly storm the big cities, overthrow pro-Western President Volodymyr Zelensky and replace him with a friendly alternative to Russia, “has failed.” dir Hodges.
He noted that the Russian military had resorted to “a strategy of attrition to achieve the same goal” and acknowledged that the constant bombardment of rockets against Ukrainian cities had “helped offset its poor planning, its terrible logistics, its inability to carry out effective joint management, operations at the operational level and its underestimation of Ukraine’s fighting power. “
“But I don’t think they can maintain that ‘overwhelming’ firepower as their logistical challenge worsens and the logistics for Ukraine improve,” Hodges said. “I don’t think they have the manpower, the logistics or the time to carry out this approach effectively.”
A senior US defense official told reporters on Monday that almost 100% of Russia’s fighting power that had accumulated on the border with Ukraine in the weeks leading up to the invasion had been committed inside the country. . The Russians have fired more than 625 missiles in 11 days of combat, the official said, and it appears they are increasing the use of long-range attacks to complement or compensate for the lack of ground movement and lack of air superiority.
Some Allied military leaders also say Ukrainian forces and civilians could resist Russian advances.
“I think we have seen a Russian invasion that is not going well. I think we are also seeing remarkable resistance from Ukraine, both its armed forces and its people,” Admiral Sir Tony Radakin, head of state major defense in the UK, he told BBC News Sunday. “We know that some of the main elements of the Russian forces have been decimated by Ukraine’s response.”
Hodges, the retired commander of the United States, said that the tactics adopted by Putin could begin to increase the pressure on the Russian leader not only from other countries, but from his own.
“The big question for me is whether the Russian people will continue to support this once they understand what is really going on,” Hodges said. “And I’m sure they’ll get it right soon, despite Putin’s blackout on the news and social media.”
David Reiter and Eleanor Watson contributed to the report.
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