Key Takeaways from the ISW:
- Russia and Ukraine conducted a prisoner of war (POW) exchange on January 3 in what was the largest POW exchange of the war to date and the first official POW exchange since August 2023.
- Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal stated on January 3 that Ukraine plans to increase its defense industrial base (DIB) output six-fold in 2024.
- Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba announced on January 3 that the NATO-Ukraine Council (NUC) will hold an emergency meeting in response to Russia’s recent mass air strikes against Ukraine.
- NATO member states continue initiatives to support Ukrainian operations in the air domain.
- Kremlin-affiliated mouthpieces may be setting information conditions to blame the West for a potential future conflict in the Arctic.
- Kazakhstan President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev characterized Russia as Kazakhstan’s “main partner and ally” in an interview published on January 3 despite recent efforts to distance Kazakhstan from Russia.
- Russian forces made confirmed advances near Avdiivka and Donetsk City as positional engagements continued along the entire line of contact.
- The Donetsk People’s Republic’s (DNR) “Vostok” Battalion stated on January 3 that the unit will continue to operate subordinated to Rosgvardia and will not be impacted by the Russian military’s reported dissolution of the “Kaskad” operational combat tactical formation of the DNR’s Internal Affairs Ministry (MVD).
- Russian authorities continue efforts to integrate occupied Ukraine into Russia using infrastructure projects and social outreach programs.
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In October Kazakhstan offered 117 old Soviet-era combat aircraft for sale by auction and it has now been reported that the US has bought 81 of them through offshore intermediaries.
Apr. 28, 09:59
Comments ( 1)
Have you noticed that Russia does not attack Ukraine forces with wave after wave of soldiers? Instead, they attack with multiple assault forces of 20-30 men. So instead of one massive attack, they have 8-12 small attacks.
Why is this?
We know that Russian troop morale is very low and that in many cases, the soldier is an ex con, hardly an inspiring situation. The soldiers are forced to fight, for if they bolt and run, they are shot by their own fellow soldiers. The average grunt also has no respect for his officers. There is at least one case where an officer was beaten to death by those under his command.
So why is this? There is probably more than one reason for this behaviour, but perhaps leadership doesn’t want to put too many soldiers in one place out of fear that they will simply retire from the field as Russia did in the First World War.
How does Ukraine exploit this? Simply by doing what they are doing now.
As dead and wounded mount, Russia will make the decision to go home. Already, Russian troop losses are over 300,000. This is 6 times the losses by the USA in Vietnam.