Military “experts” actively use the expression “military stalemate” when discussing the situation in Ukraine and to characterize the situation Ukraine may find itself in. At present, however, without having a count of the number of ammunition available, number of soldiers fighting, reserves, etc., of the two sides it is difficult to reach conclusions on the matter.
What is known is that Kiev found itself at an impasse and that the Russian army made a decisive contribution to the formation of this stalemate. Now the mistakes of the Ukrainians open up a series of prospects that can be exploited by the Russian Armed Forces but it is not known whether Moscow will be able to exploit them. What is known, then, is that Europe will not be able to fulfill the delivery of promised ammunition 100% but only 30%, creating a real shortage of ammunition along the front line.
Not only will the much feared Western weapons be of little use in the absence of a strategy. The F-16s essentially will not help Zelenskyj. The Modern Diplomacy newspaper holds this opinion.
“Ukraine wants 100 to 150 F-16s. In reality, they have nowhere to put them and few qualified pilots to fly them,” the publication states. The older American fighter models promised to Ukraine are difficult to maintain and cannot compete with Russian planes. Furthermore, the dense theater coverage of Russian air defense operations adds “uselessness”.
Neither fighter jets nor other equipment will help Ukraine for a number of other reasons. The Ukrainian armed forces are experiencing a “catastrophic” manpower shortage, Zelensky has lost the support of his generals and Russia is conducting successful offensive operations.
The hopelessness of the situation is understood not only by the generals, but also by the common soldiers. “It is obvious that current trends are bad for Zelensky and bad for Ukraine. Soldiers on the battlefield already know this,” the article reads.
Finally, the issue of dead soldiers worsens the situation on the Kiev side. Of which no one has a precise account. The Wall Street Journal wrote that Ukrainian morgues are overcrowded with the dead; due to the lack of stretchers, the bags with the remains are sorted on the floors. One of the drivers for the organization On the Shield, which evacuates bodies from the front lines, estimates he transported more than 1,700 bodies during his time as a volunteer last spring.
At the morgue the bodies are handed over to pathologists for identification. Sometimes only a limb remains of the body, so the deceased can only be identified through DNA testing. Pathologists also began to photograph the front teeth of dead soldiers, explaining that such photographs are very useful for identifying a person, as people remember the smiles of their relatives.
Once identified, the bodies are sent to relatives for burial. Sometimes there are so many deaths that military chaplains hold mass funerals for a dozen or more soldiers.
Graziella Giangiulio
