Ukraine told critics of the pace of its three-month-old counteroffensive to "shut up" on Thursday, the sharpest signal yet of Kyiv's frustration at leaks from Western officials that say its forces are advancing too slowly.
The line doesn’t need to move quicker, and Ukraine moving slowly and shoring up every meter they take is going to work out better long term. They aren’t on a march to invade their lost territory, they are on a march to the Azov sea to cut Russia’s only remaining land access to Crimea.
They are building a wall of men and weapons and once that reaches Azov they only have to defend it - and Ukraine are very good at defence.
Then the only way Russia has to get anything to Crimea is the Kerch bridge which is almost inevitably going to be destroyed.
The line doesn’t need to move quicker, and Ukraine moving slowly and shoring up every meter they take is going to work out better long term. They aren’t on a march to invade their lost territory, they are on a march to the Azov sea to cut Russia’s only remaining land access to Crimea.
They are building a wall of men and weapons and once that reaches Azov they only have to defend it - and Ukraine are very good at defence.
Then the only way Russia has to get anything to Crimea is the Kerch bridge which is almost inevitably going to be destroyed.