The Wall Street JournalThe Wall Street Journal

Ukraine adopts slow approach to counteroffensive: ‘Our problem everywhere is the sky’

By James Marson

18 Jul 2023 · 5 min read

informed Summary

  1. Ukraine's counteroffensive, launched in June, aims to retake the nearly 20% of Ukrainian territory which is now occupied by Russia. However, the campaign has been hampered by minefields and missile attacks, leading to the loss of several Western-supplied tanks and infantry fighting vehicles.

ORIKHIV, Ukraine—Six weeks into Ukraine’s counteroffensive, Capt. Anatoliy Kharchenko and his reconnaissance company were supposed to be wreaking havoc miles behind Russian defensive lines pierced by Western-supplied armored vehicles.

Instead, after many of the vehicles got bogged down in minefields, Kharchenko and his men are training how to advance methodically on foot, moving from one line of trees to another, faced with the prospect of taking back their country one field at a time.

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