Vladimir Putin will be forced to reduce the temp of Russia’s military deployment in Ukraine according to a former US commander. The military expert has argued that Russia “doesn’t have the forces” needed to sustain the ongoing fighting amid a continued and determined fightback by the Ukrainians.
Retired Major-General James “Spider” Marks told CNN: “I think over the course of time, the pace of these operations will decrease.
“This op tempo can’t be sustained.
“The Russians don’t have the forces.
“It was just described that many of them will take years to replenish and to rebuild.”
Turning to Ukraine’s recent UAV strikes on Russian patrol ships in the Black Sea, he continued: “The Ukrainians certainly have the support from the west.
“But that is going, it’s not going to die down, but clearly what needs to take place is that Ukrainians have to pick up the pace and we’ve seen that even the strike against the two ships here.
“The Ukrainians need to increase their deep strikes into sanctuary.
“They, the Russians see the Black Sea as a sanctuary they see Russia as sanctuary. [The Ukrainians] need to get out there and then that causes the Russians to decrease the amount of forces they can bring forward.”
Meanwhile, Russian high-precision missiles hit a logistics centre located at a military airfield near Ukraine’s Odesa which was used to deliver weaponry given to Kyiv by the West, the Russian defence ministry said on Tuesday.
“Hangars containing unmanned Bayraktar TB2 drones, as well as missile weapons and ammunition from the US and European countries, were destroyed,” the statement said.
On Monday, evening governor of Odesa Maksym Marchenko said on Telegram that a rocket strike had hit the Black Sea port city on Monday evening, causing deaths and injuries.
The strike came after a Ukrainian Bayraktar drone destroyed two Russian Raptor-class patrol ships in the Black Sea.