During Friday, heavy fighting took place in several places around Ukraine: milled around the city of Kharkiv in the northeastern parts of the country and around Kherson in the south.
The Russian advance has been halted in several places and it has not yet succeeded in entering the central parts of the capital Kiev.
Lieutenant Colonel Joakim Paasikivi is not surprised by the fact that the Russian invasion has not come any further.
- The Ukrainian defense has had eight years to train and prepare a defense.
I know they have raised their skills.
Risk of wear and tear
If the Ukrainian resistance continues, and Russia does not succeed in breaking through, the Russian army will be forced to turn into an attrition battle in which the Ukrainian resistance is fired with artillery, Joakim Paasikivi believes.
Such resistance will probably be found in built-up areas, he says.
- Then you have to go in with a squad and take it house by house.
- Then it will be slow, bloody and big losses on both sides - not least among civilians.