America’s self-anointed ‘newspaper of record’ has called into question Ukraine’s strategy of “defending places with little strategic value” at the cost of both men and weapons as Washington’s military support shows signs of running dry.
“Military analysts have described Ukraine’s strategy as ‘hold, build and strike’ – holding the line in the country’s southeast, replenishing its units with fresh troops and hitting back with long-range drone attacks on oil refineries and military logistics targets inside Russia,” the New York Times wrote in an expose published Wednesday.
That strategy has led to a brutal, months-long slog in Rabotino, Zaporozhye, one of the few places where Ukraine’s disastrous summer 2023 counteroffensive managed to make any headway. Ukrainian forces captured the village, maneuvering themselves into a vulnerable bulge which Russian can now push back on from three sides, “creating a dilemma: abandoning that pocket,” which NYT said “would ease the pressure on them,” or risking another “symbolic setback in the war, losing territory they gained last year at a high cost in casualties and destroyed weaponry.”
Ukrainian troops interviewed by the newspaper complained of Russia’s artillery superiority, and described unrelenting Russian attacks in and around the ruins of the village.
“Like Bakhmut and Avdeyevka, Rabotino, which had a prewar population of about 500 people, is now just ruins. Throughout the war, American officials have repeatedly raised concerns that Ukraine was holding out too long defending such places, committing soldiers and ammunition to cling to devastated towns with little strategic values,” the paper said.
But Ukrainian officials have their justifications. “At some point, symbolic becomes strategic,” former Ukrainian Ministry of Defense advisor Yurii Sak said, arguing that holding on to the ruins is “important for morale,” “for the support of the population” and the hope that Ukraine can still somehow “win.”
In the meantime, NYT noted, Russia is continuing an offensive “along the entire frontline,” cracking through fortified defenses in the Donbass, and pursuing Ukrainian forces in Kherson, Kharkov and Zaporozhye.
“I understand the administration has been frustrated,” arch neocon and former Obama deputy assistant secretary of defense for Russia, Ukraine and Eurasia Evelyn Farkas told the Times. “It’s unclear whether military decisions are purely military or influenced by political pressure or even direction,” she said.
The NYT expose is one among a growing number of increasingly frank stories in Western legacy media hinting at Ukraine’s Western partners’ growing weariness with the conflict, with similar stories pointing to the Russian defense industry’s overwhelming superiority over that of NATO, reporting on the potential resumption of behind-the-scenes peace talks, and increasingly blaming Kiev for assassinations and terrorist plots targeting Russia.
Russian President Vladimir Putin announced plans Monday to pursue the creation of a buffer zone inside Ukraine to protect Russian territories from Ukrainian attacks.