Russia’s invasion after 100 days: Ukraine goes on the offensive

The battle for Ukraine has changed into a slugfest of dueling artillery. It’s not the lightning-quick takedown Russian President Vladimir Putin supposed.  But former CIA Director David Petraeus says there isn’t any denying Russian progress.

“They have made grinding, costly, but substantial gains,” he mentioned. “They now control at least 20 percent of the country, if you include the areas, of course, that they took control of back in 2014.”

It’s a swath of territory that, if it have been in the United States, would stretch from Orlando, Fla., to North Carolina.

CBS News nationwide safety correspondent David Martin requested, “How do you think Vladimir Putin feels about the first 100 days?”

“I’m not sure that he would look in the mirror and say, you know, this hasn’t gone well at all,” Petraeus replied. “He would regard this as very much a work in progress.”

“If Russian forces are nowhere near as good as we thought they would be, are they still just good enough?”

“They are plastering the areas where they find Ukrainian resistance, but that can only go on for so long, because they’re also taking very, very high losses.”

By some estimates Russia has suffered 15,000 killed, and lost 1,000 tanks.

The Ukrainians, too, are struggling losses – 60 to 100 troopers killed every day. But their gear is being replenished by the U.S. and different Western nations … 108 Howitzers with a spread as much as 20 miles; 4 rocket programs which might hearth salvos out to 40 miles.

Martin requested, “Is the U.S. giving Ukraine enough to just hold the line? Or are they giving them enough to actually take back lost territory?”

“I think that we and the other countries are giving Ukraine enough to take back lost territory,” Petraeus mentioned, “but again, that does remain to be seen.”

New gear shouldn’t be a lot use except the Ukrainians can successfully make use of it in fight. The U.S. has despatched 1000’s of Javelin anti-tank missiles to Ukraine, however when American veteran Mark Hayward arrived at the entrance in March as a volunteer, he discovered they have been ineffective. “They couldn’t even turn the things on to tell whether they worked,” he mentioned.

There weren’t sufficient batteries to energy them.

“Because they didn’t have batteries, you can’t do anything other than put this darn thing in your arms room and wait for, well, if the tanks come after us, we’ll pull it out and hope it works,” Hayward mentioned.

Using components from damaged computer systems, they designed a technique to energy the Javelins with motorbike batteries. “It had a strong air of, ‘We’re making this up as we go along,'” he mentioned.

Martin requested, “And you’re making it up while the Russians were two kilometers away?”

“No; we were making it up while the Russians were 1.6 kilometers away,” Hayward mentioned.

The Javelins got here out of storage, and 96 hours later, the Ukrainians recorded their first Russian tank kill.

The Ukrainians have now gone on the offensive, each in the South (towards the Russian-held metropolis of Kherson), and in the north (exterior Kharkiv).

Petreaus mentioned it’s an try to outflank the Russians: “If they can get through that and get into the soft spot of the Russian defenses, then it’s very possible that they could just keep on going.”

But Hayward believes the Ukrainians will face a stark actuality: “I personally think that it is a foregone conclusion that the Ukrainian military will beat the Russian military,” he mentioned. “And when they finally retake those pieces of Ukraine that are currently occupied, they’re going to find nothing left.”

     
Story produced by Mary Walsh. (*100*): George Pozderec. 

      
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