ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Ukraine needs to make the fight last longer in order to avoid a military defeat as Russia is running out of time and has been logistically poor in its invasion of Ukraine, a former US major said on Wednesday, noting that war is more about the “will of the fighter than it is the military capability.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin launched an invasion on Ukraine on February 24, sparking widespread international condemnation.
Over two million Ukrainians have fled the country due to the war and countless others are expected to follow suit.
“If Russia doubles down, the people who will pay the price are Ukrainian citizens. We’re already seeing the biggest evacuation of people from their own country since World War II,” John Spencer, a retired US Major and current Chair of Urban Warfare Studies at West Point's Modern War Institute told Rudaw’s Nalin Hassan.
Numerous countries have come to the aid of Ukraine in the past two weeks, both financially and militarily.
Spencer does not downplay the significance of these contributions, stating “I still think the weapons that are getting in are critical and they have to happen fast because we know that in order to take the capital, they have to cut off the supplies.”
“Every country that provides Ukraine is risking something, and they should be. Ukraine is fighting for, I think, all of Europe. I think they’re fighting for democracy,” Spencer added.
The retired US major went on to claim that Russia has been logistically poor throughout this operation. “Ukraine does not have to beat Russia militarily. They do not need to fight better than them. It has to last longer,” Spencer concluded.
Russian forces continue to advance on multiple fronts, aiming to control more cities in Ukraine.
There have been three rounds of talks between Ukrainian and Russian delegations in Belarus but they have yielded little to stop the ongoing war.
