Two years on, the Ukraine puzzle gets murkier
New Indian ExpressUncertainty multiplied because although they were initially liberal in providing the material resources for Ukraine to fight the war thrust upon it, they failed to appreciate the necessity to continue doing so over the long term. Ukraine had to fall back on Pakistan to supply $364 million worth of ammunition, missiles, artillery shells and some small arms through the US. Russia, after its initial failures, has been liberal in employing artillery and precision missiles against built-up areas without much resort to manoeuvre. The strategy employed by Russia has been to create a sufficiently wide space to allow its thus far lumbering and almost immobile mechanised forces to execute a deep manoeuvre, which could have an unnerving effect on Ukrainian forces. Although reports from the battlefront are not fully reliable, being doctored from an influence and information warfare angle, it does seem apparent that the momentum is in favour of Russia with its army having captured the town of Avdiivka, 15 km northwest of Donetsk which is one of the biggest cities in the Donbas region which Russia controls.