Putin’s terror is not working, Ukrainians are not demanding capitulation at the front and abandonment of Donbas — Julian Röpcke

"Russian troops continue attempts to advance on the front while at the same time shelling Ukraine’s heating and power plants at temperatures of up to –30 degrees Celsius. But is this strategy of russia effective? This is the question posed by Julian Röpcke", - the Bild Telegram channel wrote on February 4, quoting the military expert.

“The fact is that putin is carrying out his goal — plunging all Ukrainians into darkness and cold. In previous years he already tried to do this, but now his army is succeeding. Russia is producing and importing more and more missiles, cruise missiles, and terrorist drones, while Ukraine has almost completely exhausted all Western-made air defense missiles and, due to the halt in supplies from the U.S., is receiving almost no new ones. Nevertheless, putin’s strategy is not working. Despite daily terror against millions of people, most Ukrainians remain resilient and do NOT demand from their government — as russia seeks — capitulation at the front and abandonment of Donbas.

At the same time, russia continues every day to throw soldiers at Ukrainian positions along the entire front line stretching more than 1,000 kilometers. But here too, successes remain limited. While russia loses 250 soldiers every day of the war to Ukrainian drones, cold, and hunger, putin’s army over the past two weeks has managed to capture only three small villages in the Zaporizhzhia oblast. The front in the Donetsk oblast, by contrast, remains relatively stable, and in the Kharkiv oblast the russian General Staff has for several weeks been inventing successes around the frontline city of Kupiansk — propaganda lies that are regularly exposed by Ukrainian soldiers, who confirm with their own videos that settlements allegedly captured by russia remain under Ukraine’s control.

Overall, the russian offensive by the end of the fourth year of the war has largely stalled despite massive terror against the civilian population and frost, and thanks to effective Ukrainian defense. In January, russia captured 250 square kilometers of Ukrainian territory. After 445 square kilometers in December and 505 in November. The figures show: no matter how brutally russia acts, putin cannot break Ukraine’s will to resist or its front line”, - concludes the Bild military expert.