Russia Pounds Ukraine, "Counter-Offensive" Dies

The long-awaited and much-ballyhooed Ukraine "counteroffensive" is doing badly.

...Kyiv has said its troops are battling under Russian “air and artillery superiority” as cruise missiles targeting the supply lines of the Ukrainian counteroffensive killed three people working a nightshift in a warehouse in the southern city of Odesa.

The country’s deputy defence minister, Hanna Maliar, said she could report just partial success over the last 24 hours, during which the progress of Ukraine’s forces had been measured only in the hundreds of metres as they sought to advance in the east and south.

Western officials added to the sombre tone as they briefed that Ukraine was taking significant casualties and making slow progress towards Russia’s main line of defence, in one of the west’s first assessments of the Ukrainian counteroffensive launched on 4 June.
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“The Russian manoeuvre and defence approach is proving challenging for Ukraine and costly to attacking forces, hence the advance at the moment is slow,” an official said. They added that “grinding, costly warfare” was likely for many months to come.

“This is incredibly difficult,” the official said. “They are going against a well-prepared line that the Russians have had months to prepare.”..

The Brit newspapers have faithfully chirped out Ukrainian propaganda for the last several months, so when you see The Guardian admitting that the Russkies are hammering the daylights out of the Ukies, you know it's a lot worse than they're admitting.

But Bai-Den's plan remains the same:  "I'll hold your coat while  you and him fight to the last Ukrainian!"

And we're paying for it.