Which cities is Ukraine besieging ? The answer is none. The only advantage Ukraine has over Russia is manpower. They outnumber the Russians more than 3 to 1. So basically what Ukraine does, is they try and swarm or overwhelm Russian positions with more troops than the Russians can kill at any given time. Most of the time it doesn't work and even when it does, it leads to massive losses in terms of men and material.
Most of Ukraine's soldiers are conscripts with a few days training. If they're lucky they have a few weeks of training. Most are poorly equipped, some with WW1 era Maxim machine guns. This is what Ukrainian conscripts themselves say. A few months ago CNN interviewed an elite Ukrainian unit. They told CNN that 80% of their unit had been killed or injured. Around the same time I saw an interview with a Ukrainian conscript and he said that all the professional soldiers are dead and that there are only conscripts now.
Ukraine is using human wave attacks against Russia. In Kherson for example, Ukraine keeps sending poorly trained conscripts to the frontlines, in an attempt to flood Russian positions. However the Russian troops are airborne paratroopers, elite units. For the last 3 weeks the Ukrainians have attacked Russian lines on a daily basis and they have sustained thousands of casualties and hundreds of tanks and armored vehicles.
The difference between Russia and Ukraine is that the Ukrainians have never been able to encircle and destroy a large Russian army unit. The Russians, when surrounded or overwhelmed, simply withdraw to the next defensive line, taking with them 90% of their men and equipment. Territory is not a big deal. The Nazis in WW2 gained alot of territory, but in the end they lost it all. The way Ukraine is fighting is simply not sustainable.
Right now the Ukrainians are attacking the Russians with everything they have, because the weather is turning cold and wet and they have a few weeks left at most. The Ukrainians know that very soon, in a few months at most, the Russians will deploy 300,000+ troops. Despite the propaganda coming from the west, the vast majority of these units will be made up of young soldiers with a military background. They will also be well equipped and will be supported by thousands of Iranian / Russian drones and missiles as well as artillery and air support.
Only time will tell, but once Russia deploys their new army, I can't see a good outcome for Ukraine. Remember Russia attacked Kiev with 40,000 troops. With 300,000 troops Russia can easily take Kharkiv and encircle the entire Donbas. After that they can expand from Kherson to Transnistria and block Odessa from the rest of Ukraine. Again nobody knows what the future holds but Ukraine is on the 10th round of conscription now, so if they weren't sustaining massive losses, why would they be conscripting women and elderly men ? I guess we'll just have to wait and see what happens.
@925boy so if you do the numbers 500 to 1000 Ukrainian soldiers are out of permanent action a month, 15000 to 30000, so between 150000 to 300000 of most of their best men, in less than a year. One most Russian military analysts and bloggers are now ridiculing this special operation, when you have a feared Chechnyan president ridiculing the performance of these generals and leaders, also out loud yeah big failures. Okay past coupl of weeks Ukraine hasnt taken control of “significant” territory why would they, they’re using a Russian tactic surround these cities and towns that are fortified for attack, just starve them and bombard them daily into submission, why would Ukraine fight door to door with town and cities mined for ambush. I saw you weren’t finished talking so I moved it out of respect for
@Stryker1982 also just got off my 30 minute break have a great day