Apparently, Ukraine is facing new challenges in its fight against Russian forces and is therefore changing its tactics. This is reported by the US magazine The War Zone, citing a report by the New York Times. Progress so far in the counteroffensive has been limited, despite massive deliveries of arms and training of Ukrainian troops by the West.

The New York Times states that Ukrainian commanders would now focus on wearing down Russian forces with artillery and long-range missiles. This is happening in parallel with a troop build-up in the south of the country, with a wave of western-trained forces launching small-scale attacks. Results so far have been described as “mixed,” with some successes but no sweeping gains like the cities of Kherson and Kharkiv last fall.

NATO sees hopes not fulfilled

According to the report, the tactical change is a clear signal that NATO’s hopes for major advances by the Ukrainian units have not been fulfilled for the time being. This raises questions about the quality of training Ukrainians have received from the West and whether the massive arms investments, including nearly $44 billion from the Biden administration, have been successful in transforming Ukraine’s military into a NATO-standard combat force .

Rob Lee and Michael Kofman, experts cited in the Times article, and Franz-Stefan Gady, reported on by The War Zone last month, acknowledge the challenges in training Ukraine’s troops. Gady emphasized that the troops were finding it difficult to implement the lessons learned from the shortened training.