Notes and Essays -- John Brown

Ukrainian soldiers on the front line near the village of Robotyne in Ukraine.   VIACHESLAV RATYNSKYI/REUTERS After three months of grinding advances in Western-backed operation, Kyiv accelerates thrust along main line of attack By James Marson, The Wall Street Journal , Aug. 31, 2023 7:25 am ET; see also Ukrainian forces have penetrated the main Russian defensive line in their country’s southeast, raising hopes of a breakthrough that would reinvigorate  the slow-moving counteroffensive . Ukrainian paratroopers are fighting through entrenched Russian positions on the edge of the village of Verbove, a Ukrainian officer in the area said. Ukrainian forces have also reached the main defensive line to the south of nearby Robotyne village, he said. Ukraine’s military confirmed advances toward Verbove and south of Robotyne, without giving details. Ukraine’s push southward Russian-controlled area* Russian fortifications UKRAINE Area of detail Zaporizhzhia Orikhiv Verbove Robotyne Tokmak Melito

A portrait of Prigozhin adorns his grave in St. Petersburg. (EPA-EFE/Shutterstock); image from The Washington Pos t (Aug 29)

The West Needs a Strategy for After the Counteroffensive  A Ukrainian soldier walking near a destroyed tank, Robotyne, Ukraine, August 2023  By  Mick Ryan , Foreign Affairs ,  August 30, 2023 The war in Ukraine has just passed the 18-month mark. The country’s people, having fought and won three major offensive campaigns in 2022, are now using a mix of old Soviet and new Western equipment to fight a campaign in the south. Although severing the land link between Russia is an important aim, so is liberating the large swaths of land containing agricultural and mineral wealth that provide significant revenue for the Ukrainian government. The offensive has been, as Ukrainian President  Volodymyr Zelensky  described it, a slow affair. The sluggish pace should not surprise people who have studied military conflicts and the challenges of offensive operations. But to many observers, ones used to instant gratification (or who want a major resolution before the 2024 U.S. election), the deliberate,