Ukraine is getting its ass kicked, but Zelensky acts like he has troops to spare. From Ted Snider at antiwar.com:
The Russian Armed Forces are pushing west through the Donbas region of Ukraine. Their advance has consistently been called slow, but this is no longer true. In October and November, Russia captured over 1,500 square kilometers of Ukrainian territory. The pace has continued in December, and Russia is advancing on as many as eight sections of the front. They are overwhelming heavily fortified Ukrainian cities and defenses, jeopardizing Ukraine’s ability to supply its troops by rail or road. They are now only one mile from Pokrovsk, a key logistical hub. Beyond Pokrovsk, the Russian Armed Forces may find mostly undefended fields.
More importantly, the Russian assault is devouring Ukraine’s soldiers and weapons. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky begs his Western suppliers daily for more weapons. “The priority should be providing missiles,” he said again on December 9. Possibly between 500,000 and 600,000 Ukrainian soldiers have been killed or wounded and at least 100,000 more have deserted.
And yet, desperate for men and weapons, Zelensky is sending the precious men and weapons he has everywhere but the Donbas where the fighting is happening.
In August, Zelensky and his commander-in-chief, Oleksandr Syrsky, made the decision to deploy the best trained and best equipped troops they had left to them away from the front lines in the Donbas to the Kursk region of Russia. The hope was that the invasion of Russia would compel the Russian Armed Forces to divert troops from the assault on the Donbas front to the defense of Russian territory.
