Spodaj je, kot običajno zelo dober, komentar iz Moon of Alabama o odločitvi Zelenskega, da Ukrajina začne pospešeno graditi obrambne linije. To bi morala narediti pred enim letom, ko je imela še dovolj orožja in dovolj za boj sposobnih mož. Danes nima nič več od tega. Gradnja 1000-kilometrske obrambne linije proti Rusiji na vzhodu in 1000-kilometrske obrambne linije proti Belorusiji na severu, tudi če bi bila gradnja uspešna, nič ne pomaga, ker Ukrajina nima dovolj vojakov in dovolj orožja, da bi 2000-kilometrsko obrambno linijo lahko uspešno branila. Za preboj obrambnih linij mora nasprotnik imeti premoč v artileriji, premoč v zraku, premoč v oklepnih enotah in dovolj številčno vojsko. Vse to Rusija ima. In medtem ko mora Ukrajina braniti celotno 2000-kilometrsko obrambno linijo, je za Rusijo dovolj, da sile za preboj koncentrira na eno, dve ali tri točke. In dovolj je, da obrambno linijo prebije na enem mestu in pride za hrbet nasprotniku, nakar se celotna obramba Ukrajine sesuje. Kot Hitlerjev 1670-kilometrski obrambni Atlantski zid leta 1944 po izkrcanju zaveznikov v Normandiji.

Škoda časa o tem sploh razpravljati, kaj šele – glede na preostale resurse Ukrajine – v to investirati. Če je ostalo še kaj razuma v Ukrajini (in ta naj bi, kot piše Seymour Hersh, vseeno še prevladoval pri poveljniku ukrajinske vojske Zalužniju), se mora ukrajinsko vodstvo čim prej izpogajati o miru, preden jim ruske sile pridejo pred Kijev. In seveda Zelenskega poslati na Karibe.

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After wasting ten-thousands of men in hopeless battles the Ukrainian comedian has finally acknowledged that his army’s performative ‘counter-attacks’ and hold-to-the-last-man defenses have made no sense.

Politco’s Dreamer of the year finally calls for building defensive lines:

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy called for a faster buildup of major defensive lines amid Kyiv’s stalled counteroffensive and concerns that Russia could attempt to take more territory.

Zelenskiy urged greater speed and efficiency in building defenses in a video statement on Telegram after a meeting with key military and security officials Tuesday evening. He encouraged local communities to pitch in and pledged to make money available for the effort.

“Our country will definitely have enough mines and concrete,” he said. He didn’t provide details on where the fortifications would be built or how extensive they might be.

It took the Russian army several months and lots of money to build its extensive defense lines in the southeast of Ukraine.

Zelenski has neither the time nor the money to build solid lines but he wants many of them (machine translation):

According to Zelensky, he held a meeting on fortification in all major directions – first of all on Avdiivka and Maryinsky, as well as on Kupyansk and on the Kupyansk – Liman line, in Zaporozhye and Kherson regions.

In addition, fortifications will be built along the entire border with Russia and Belarus.

“We will work with our partners to strengthen our defensive lines,” the president added.

Earlier, Zelensky already spoke about a “special” meeting of the Stavka, where they discussed strengthening the fortification.

Comments Strana (machine translation):

This is quite a landmark statement. It sounds like an announcement of the construction of large-scale defensive lines-similar to the one that Russia has built in the south.

And more broadly, this can be interpreted as a transition to a defensive strategy, which began to be talked about more and more often after the counteroffensive of the Armed Forces of Ukraine actually stopped, and the Russians themselves switched to large-scale attacks.

But officially, the authorities do not talk about the transition to defense, and the main thesis remains that the APU is preparing to attack, and there is no deadlock (which even the commander-in-chief Valery Zaluzhny wrote about) at the front.

Zelenski called for private companies to build the new fortifications. In the context of Ukraine that means more corruption – lots of it – as government officials will ask for kick backs for any contract they may sign. Previous attempts of privately build defense lines had ditches that were too shallow and of little utility. Some concrete was poured but in the wrong places and shapes.

There were reasons why Ukraine failed last summer to overcome the Russian defense lines. It lacked the artillery support, air-superiority and sheer mass that is required to achieve that. But Russia has all of that – an enormous amount of heavy siege artillery (200 mm and beyond), a ridiculous superiority in the number of unmanned drones and manned fighter planes and lots of new contract soldiers. Any lines the Ukrainians can build will be overcome by superior Russian forces.

Yes, passing Ukrainian minefields will be difficult. But there are ways and means to do such.

Thanks to its previous lunatic attempts the Ukrainian army has lost too many men to hold each and every line. And while the Ukrainian army will have to defend everywhere, the Russia one can choose the one or two local fronts where it wants to breach the defense lines to pass through them.

What is planned now is too little too late to save Ukraine.

Vir: Moon of Alabama