Ukrainian defenders have bravely charged back into their home territories stolen by the Russians. The world marvels at the "mouse that roared." How has a much smaller nation with a far smaller military been so successful against Mother Russia?
Reading of their advances against Russia, I'm reminded of how the Nazi juggernaut easily rolled over Russia's initial ineffective defense. The Soviet Union's defeat seemed inevitable.
But Hitler, like Napoleon before him, overlooked one of Russia's two most powerful defenses: One –Stalin knew he could trade territory for time, and Two – huge population from which to form hundreds of divisions that took that territory back, even the Ukraine which Germany had seized and controlled for two years.
I fear Russia has allowed Ukraine to roll back into their stolen eastern regions. Pulling back his heavy forces, Russia may have tricked Ukraine into extended its own lines of communication and support far from the country's more populated western region. And much further from NATO's resupply from Poland. This might invite easy interdiction by Russian air power, destroying everything from the Polish-Ukrainian boarder east to the Ukrainian-Russian boarder; Russia has earlier bombed within twelve miles of Poland.
The Ukrainian interior presents 1,100km of soft rail and highway targets inviting sudden Russian destruction.
By pulling back, Russia seems to have invited Ukrainian forces to mass within easy striking distance from behind the boarder. I believe Russian forces are reorganizing and resupplying on their "home turf, " letting the defenders exhaust much of their strength in the advance to retake eastern provinces. If Ukrainian lines of communication are interdicted by Russian rocket and air power, with NATO equipment destroyed by the Russians before it could resupply the defenders, lessons from World War II might be seen again with a Russian steamroller .
It would be a fatal blow if Belarus then sent its forces into Ukraine. Ukrainian forces would be smashed from both front and rear, and possibly from the south as well if Russian military in Crimea assumes the offensive.
