[WAPO via MSN] The Russian military will soon exhaust its combat capabilities and be forced to bring its offensive in Ukraine's eastern Donbas region to a grinding halt, according to Western intelligence predictions and military experts.
"There will come a time when the tiny advances Russia is making become unsustainable in light of the costs and they will need a significant pause to regenerate capability," said a senior Western official, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive issue.
The assessments come despite continued Russian advances against outgunned Ukrainian forces, including the capture on Friday of the city of Severodonetsk, the biggest urban center taken by Russia in the east since launching the latest Donbas offensive nearly three months ago.
The Russians are now closing in on the adjacent city of Lysychansk, on the opposite bank of the Donets River. The town's capture would give Russia almost complete control of the Luhansk oblast, one of two oblasts, or provinces, that make up the Donbas region. Control of Donbas is the publicly declared goal of Russia's "special military operation," although the multifront invasion launched in February made it clear that Moscow's original ambitions were far broader. |