And this is likely why we are seeing a slow – and at times incremental – start to this first phase of open operations. It has also been grueling, with Ukrainian losses reported around Mala Tokmachka, and now intense fighting near Pyatykhatky. Some estimates suggest only a quarter of Ukraine’s fresh units, bolstered by NATO training and supplies, are now in the fight. Ukrainian forces firing an S60 anti-aircraft canon placed on a truck on Juune 19, 2023. Kyiv needs to cement a change in the frontlines to validate the huge investment in its forces made by NATO.

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Persons: –, Wojciech Grzedzinski, Rykove, recalibrations, Vladimir Putin, Velyka, Blahodatne, Brigade perilously, Igor Strelkov, Melitopol –, Kreminna, Ukraine’s, General Valerii Zaluzhnyi, Zalyuzhnyi, gridlock Organizations: CNN, 73rd Naval Special Operations Center, NATO, Anadolu Agency, Getty, Moscow, Kyiv, Brigade, Donetsk People’s Republic Locations: Ukrainian, Ukraine, Rykove, Kherson, Bakhmut, Crimea, Russia, Kyiv, Moscow, Volnovakha, Mariupol, Zaporizhzhia, Orikhiv, Mala Tokmachka, Pyatykhatky, Donetsk, Zherebyanki, Kamyanske, Dnipro, Melitopol, Azov, Kupyansk, Kharkiv, Russian