Over the past week, Russia had been gathering forces in what appears to be preparations for a decisive push in the country's Kursk Oblast.
"The situation is changing every day. Not long ago, we were on the offensive, and now we are on the defensive," a 35-year-old artilleryman with the
I think that it relates to bargaining power. Right nowthe only leverage that the Ukrainians have to negotiate against giving up territory is to trade Kursk back.
If a negotiation is forced by the new US government, the Russians want that leverage gone first, so that they can negotiate to keep held territory.
Modern NATO weapons and which ammunition? Which NATO tactics without air superiority? Ukraine doesn't even get enough bullets to fire, let alone rotate troops to relieve physical exhaustion.