[August 16, 2024] Ukraine has taken the fight to the Russian motherland and crossed President Putin’s “red line.” With Ukraine troops now in Russia, the leaders of the West are beginning to realize there are no serious retaliatory efforts by Russia, at least to this point, almost two weeks later.
The move by Ukraine is certainly a masterful stroke, taking everyone by surprise and demonstrating their ability to think outside the box and deliver a punishing blow to Russian forces and a blackeye for Putin.
At the beginning of this attack into Russia proper, most military analysts were saying that Ukraine was being reckless by logistically overextending their forces, forming a bulge in the front lines subject to the destruction of their armor and infantry forces, and risking a possible nuclear retaliatory strike on Ukrainian soil. So far, at least these “experts” have been wrong.
“The best defense is a good offense.” – ancient military adage
So, why is Ukraine pushing into Russian territory? At this point, the answer should be self-evident. The only issue for Ukraine is when and how. And now we know the answer. At this point, the question is how long they can continue to exploit their initial successes and how much damage they can wreak on Russia.
This summer, Russia had made territorial gains against Ukraine. But the Russian losses were so large and their troop morale so low the Ukrainians knew this was a time to act. Even if the original purpose of the push was to pull Russian troops from the south, relieving pressure on that area, the results of the attack into Russia will have results that far outweigh any downsides.
As long as the Ukrainian forces are not trapped and annihilated, we will continue to see a boost in their morale, a reshaped battlefield beneficial to Ukraine, a demoralized Russian army and political damage to Putin, more bleeding of economic resources from Russia, and an opportunity to push Russia in other unexpected locations thereby taking the initiative from Russia.
The results are yet to be determined. For now, Ukraine has the upper hand.
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Please read my books:
The Ukrainians are practicing classic warfare in the Clausewitz style.
We can pray for the souls of the lost who died because of a melomaniac who is in power in Russia who has grand delusions of greatness.
“Over the next six days, the fear felt by many of the thousands of Ukrainian troops taking part in this audacious operation yielded to exhilaration. They advanced quickly — by 5km-10km a day — seizing several villages, part of a railway line and a key gas transit point. They began hastily digging positions and preparing for Russian reinforcements to arrive.” – good Financial Times article with more first person accounts of the beginning of this push into Russia territory. Read it here at this link: https://www.ft.com/content/bc695adf-bd17-4242-b4bc-82235a97edbf
Yep, good article. Thanks. Most of the articles I read about this are just repeats and crap. Our “journalists” today are just pigeons sitting on the rooftops and crapping on the ground. Their articles are worthless.
Elements of at least six Ukrainian brigades are involved, according to the soldiers and the FT’s review of combat footage published by the Ukrainian brigades on social media. You can find much of it here on Instagram. https://www.instagram.com/reel/C-kaBSat3PZ/?igsh=OTNxNWRscWUzNDJ4
One supporter of Ukraine on her Instragram account has this to note:
🔥🔥🔥💪💪💪💙💛🇺🇦🙏🙏🙏🥰🥰🥰ПИШАЄМОСЬ ВАМИ 💙💛ВИ НЕЙМОВІРНІ 💙💛НАШІ ТИТАНИ 💙
I don’t know what that means but it sounds ominous. ❤
Russia needs to stop this war. No one is winning.
Best part of the article. “As long as the Ukrainian forces are not trapped and annihilated, we will continue to see a boost in their morale, a reshaped battlefield beneficial to Ukraine, a demoralized Russian army and political damage to Putin, more bleeding of economic resources from Russia, and an opportunity to push Russia in other unexpected locations thereby taking the initiative from Russia. The results are yet to be determined. For now, Ukraine has the upper hand.” – Gen. Doug Satterfield. YEAH!!!!
Good news for Ukraine. Let’s all pray that they are able to end this war sooner.
🇺🇦 Good but brief overview of Ukraine’s unexpected attack on Russia proper. I wish them the best of luck. Their troops are brave and resourceful. Slava Ukraini. 🇺🇦
“The best defense is a good offense.” – ancient military adage
Exactly, Wesley. While this is a brief overview by Gen. Satterfield, I do believe he will be writing more about the war. He publishes one article per day and while I wish he would do more articles, he is a busy man with many responsibilities. I do agree with some of the others who would like to see more on this war an the Israeli War with Hamas and what appears to be an increasingly regional war with other Islamic countries supported by Iran. Also, there are changes inside Iran that is good for the West and we need to support that too.
Slava Ukraini
🇺🇦🇺🇦🇺🇦🇺🇦🇺🇦🇺🇦🇺🇦🇺🇦🇺🇦🇺🇦
There are many lessons from this war and maybe Gen. Satterfield could devote a few of his articles to those lessons. I know that he and the military make a distinction between the tactical and strategic. Then I would hope for at least two article. Just a recommendation because nearly zero Americans understand strategy.
“For now Ukraine has the upper hand.” – Gen. Doug Satterfield. Yep, but we here in America have the luxury of waiting.
Gen. Satterfield, thanks for this article, as I was waiting for what you had to say. Indeed, no one is covering the strategic side of this “incursion” into the Russian Motherland. Indeed, it is to draw Russian forces from the south where the Ukrainians are taking a bad hit, and creating chaos in the Kursk area where the attack has occured. They are showing some innovative, but classic, attacks. So far, it looks like their effort is paying off and Russia was indeed surprised. This shows a lot about Ukraine’s forces that they could pull this off without word of it leaking out in advance. They can keep a secret. Good for Ukraine. Bad for Russia. Now, America’s President “braindead” Biden needs to keep his fingers out of it.
JT, good points. Thanks for noting this. To follow up on your train of thought, if Biden stops restricting US weapons’ use, Ukraine could make more strides to end this war sooner.
War is unpredictable and this one is no exception. I’ll wait and see what happens to those forces in Russia and I’m interested in what Putin has to say publically.
Tactically surprised? Yes. Strategically surprised? No. Russia failed to defend its own borders when Putin said that Ukraine crossing into Russia was a red line. This shows that Russia is a paper tiger. Still a dangerous paper tiger but nonetheless hollow at its core. That is what communism is …. hollow at its core.