Russia has gathered more than 100,000 soldiers of its occupation forces on the Lyman-Kupiansk axis.
Source: Serhii Cherevatyi, spokesman for the Eastern Group of Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, on the national 24/7 newscast
Additional information: Russians went on the offensive on the Kupiansk front - Ukrainska Pravda
I’d really hoped Russian defenses were close to collapsing, but if they can mount a counter-attack with 100000 soldiers, this is still going to be a very long war.
Russia has ~144 million people. They can scrape together impressive numbers of manpower, but it’s a whole another matter what they’re going to fight with and how effective those poorly (if at all) trained troops really are. We’ve already seen AK-variants rusted so badly that they’re mostly danger to the one pulling the trigger and bolt action rifles. Of course that amount of soldiers, no matter how poorly equipped, does pose a threat, but at the big picture (from my armchair general position) the bigger question is how long Russia can keep up with their artillery. And with 4,5k destroyed they’re running low, but there’s still considerable amount of equipment left.
Yes, that’s what I’m worried about. I believe Ukraine will win, but if they first have to destroy all the weapons Russia has stored and all the people they can muster, it is going to be a long war.
I hope something in the Russian state brakes first, which makes continuing the war impossible.