The American “Time” magazine published an article by Frederick Kagan, director of the Critical Threats Project at the American Enterprise Institute, in which he sees that the battle for the city of Severodonetsk is a Russian media operation in the form of a battle, and that one of its main goals for Moscow is to create the impression that Russia has regained its strength and will now crush Ukraine.
This impression is wrong, Kagan said, and that the Russian military in Ukraine is increasingly becoming an expendable force that cannot achieve a decisive victory if the Ukrainians continue to hold out.
The writer added that Russian President Vladimir Putin is trying to turn his invasion of Ukraine into a brutal struggle of wills, as he bets his army to break the collective will of the Ukrainians to fight in their country.
And if the Ukrainians can withstand the current Russian storm, and then counterattack the exhausted Russian forces, they still have every chance to liberate their people and all their lands.
The writer believes that Putin cannot defeat Ukraine militarily as long as the Ukrainians have the will to fight, and the West has the will to support them.
And so he attacks the will of both by forcing his forces to launch the most vicious and brutal attack of this war, hoping to convince everyone that he has finally harnessed the mass and strength of Russia that Stalin used to defeat Hitler.
If the Ukrainians can withstand the current Russian storm and then counterattack the exhausted Russian forces, they still have every chance to liberate their people and all their lands.
The writer pointed out that Putin is holding Ukraine's export gas and fuel supplies hostage, hoping to impose high enough costs to persuade the West to abandon Ukraine.
He commented that neither Ukrainians nor their friends around the world should surrender to Putin, or be deceived by the present mirage of Russian success and power shown at the Battle of Severodonetsk.
He added that the problems in the Russian military at this moment are much more dangerous than the success of the Russian mission, and it is unlikely that the will of the Ukrainians will be broken or refuse to fight on a large scale unless things escalate significantly, and it is unlikely that this will be the case because Western aid continues to flow The Ukrainian army continues to modernize its existing equipment and supplies and periodically acquires new capabilities.
For all these reasons and more, the current Russian offensive will almost certainly stop at a certain point.
Certainly, the Russian army will not be able to withstand this attack for long to destroy the Ukrainian army, or to capture other major cities.
We must not allow the depressing losses of Severodonetsk and perhaps more lands in the East to hide this reality.
The writer concluded his article that if the Ukrainians retain their will to fight, and their justified confidence in their ability to liberate much if not all of their occupied lands, and if the West adheres to the commitment to support Ukraine in this goal and refrain from pushing Kyiv to make concessions, there is every reason for hope.