Western intelligence services say that the Ukrainian army has a chance of decisively defeating the Russian army west of the Dnipro. But do you have enough power? What countermeasures is Russia taking? A situation assessment.
In the first days of the war, Russian tanks rolled over south-western Ukraine like flowing water. In the initial shock, the Ukrainian army seemed unable to counter the attackers. On February 25, Kremlin troops crossed the Dnipro and pushed on unabated to the next large river crossing at Mikolajiv. The port city of Odessa seemed within reach – and with it the way to Transnistria, the Russian fantasy republic in the Moldova.