Russia-Ukraine war of attrition entering final phase — analyst

Volodymyr Horbach, Executive Director of the Institute for the Transformation of Northern Eurasia, expressed this opinion.

"We are now in a situation where the war has entered a very dangerous phase. We have become accustomed to the ongoing war of attrition, however, this was not a total war. Now it seems that this war of attrition is in its final phase and one of the sides is about to break. 

Since Ukraine is delivering painful strikes on Russian oil refining infrastructure, the Russians continue to destroy civilian and energy infrastructure on the verge of total war. In particular, they are hitting civilian trains and buses, and not just civilian infrastructure, but citizens directly. This is a dangerous threshold of total war, when everything and everyone is being destroyed indiscriminately," Horbach believes.

The analyst emphasized that Ukraine must continue to strike Russian targets that enable Moscow to continue the war.

"Ukraine needs to withstand this. We simply have no other choice but to defend ourselves against Russian aggression. We must also respond to the Russians in kind, of course not against civilian targets, but those that allow the Russian Federation to continue this war," he added.

• On October 9, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy stated that if Russian leader Vladimir Putin conducts mobilization, it will be a challenge to Europe, as Russia will be ready to start a major war.