If Ukraine only defends eastern frontline, it will cost lot of blood – Colonel Grant

Colonel Glen Grant shared his opinions with Espreso TV.

"The battle in eastern Ukraine should be considered along the entire length of the frontline in the east, not just in Bakhmut or Vuhledar, because these are the places where Ukrainian troops are concentrated, and yes, they are indeed quite successful in resisting Russians there. But there are other places where Russia is looking for weak spots or certain gaps between towns, forests, where they can advance. So they are slowly but surely advancing in some places, and however small it is, it is still moving forward. The question arises – are we getting overall strategic value from what we are doing in Donbas? What should we do next? Because if we just fight a defensive struggle there and wait for the next wave of attacks, it will cost us a lot of blood," he emphasized.

According to the military expert, there is a question of how long Ukraine will be able to withstand a one-on-one battle, as the military is always told to seize the initiative, break behind the enemy lines and surround them, as such a confrontation is expensive in terms of ammunition and manpower. The retired colonel noted that the main goal of the battle is to break the enemy's spirit and then take other actions.

“What worries me is that I'm not sure that we're going to do something straight away, that we're going to wait for vehicles and tanks to come from the West before we do something. And that time between now and a counter-attack gives the Russians time to bring more soldiers and equipment forward and to continue the attack. So my feeling is that there's got to be something else. If we're going to fight like this at some stage, we have to try and get behind them in any way possible and don't forget that in World War II and in World War I most soldiers were walking for long distances during attacks. They weren't waiting for vehicles,” Glen Grant said.

• On February 17, Colonel Oleksiy Dmytrashkivskyi, spokesman for the joint press center of the Tavria Defense Forces, said that Russia had changed its tactics in the battle for Vuhledar, Donetsk region. Russian troops have stopped night attacks on the city and are using this time to restore their forces and pull up reserves.