Why “Digging In“ Won’t Save Ukraine & What the West Got Wrong about Russian Defenses

Why Ukraine Won’t Be Able to “Dig In” - After the defeated 5 month Ukrainian offensive and with admissions in the Western media that Ukraine’s cross-river offensive in Kherson is a failure, a growing number Ukrainian and Western military and political leaders are talking about Ukraine going on the defensive; - Ukraine seeks to build Russian-style defensives along the line of contact and use 2024 to build up combat power; - The main problem facing this strategy is that Ukraine has already in many places dug in since as early as 2014 and yet Russia has been able to overpower and displace Ukrainian forces regardless; - Russia’s successful defeat of the 2023 Ukrainian offensive was owed as much to its superior firepower as it was to the construction of defensive positions; - While Russia will not be able to conduct “big arrow” offensives without suffering heavy losses for the same reason Ukraine cannot, the existence of mines covered by artillery, FPV drones and other syste