Experts see little movement An artillery battle is taking place around Severodonetsk
06/20/2022, 07:30 am
According to the American think tank ISW, the Russian offensive around the Ukrainian city of Severodonetsk is failing – despite the superiority of artillery weaponry. According to experts, Moscow is even getting in the way by not calling its war a war.
According to military experts, Russian artillery superiority is not enough to capture the administrative center of Sievarodonetsk in eastern Ukraine. “Russia’s concentrated artillery capability, along with indisputably weakened infantry units, remains insufficient to sustain Russian advances in Sieverodonetsk,” according to the latest analysis by the Institute for the Study of War (ISW). Russian troops continued to fight for control of the city but made little progress on Sunday.
Against the backdrop of Russia’s superiority in artillery weaponry, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said Sunday night on the ARD that Germany could and will do more in terms of arms delivery. The war with Russia is now an artillery war. Russian troops would outnumber the artillery by 15:1. That’s why Ukraine urgently needs weapons like anti-aircraft devices and missile systems. The sooner the weapons arrive, the greater the help and the fewer people will die.
Cities around the city of Sieverodonetsk remain under intense Russian fire. Ukrainian forces said on Sunday they had pushed back the Russians around Sieverodonetsk. On Facebook, the Ukrainian army referred to a success in the Toshkivka area. However, according to Kyiv, Russian forces are “invading” towards the village of Orikhove.
According to ISW experts, Russia is likely to continue trying to encircle the ancient city and isolate supplies from the remaining Ukrainian forces, who largely holed up in the Azot chemical plant. However, there is currently little progress on this project. In addition, Moscow is preparing an offensive in Sloviansk. The Sloviansk-Kramatorsk area is considered the center of Ukrainian defense forces in the Donbass region.
According to the ISW, Moscow itself is hampering the success of its invasion by continuing to speak of a “special military operation” rather than a war. This prevents Russia from mobilizing to generate more forces. Furthermore, the Kremlin lacks the legal means to punish soldiers who refuse to be mobilized.