Popular military analyst Agil Rustamzade assesses the Russian army reserve's combat effectiveness in an interview with NV.
"This is the second time this war has come to a situation where the troops have a certain balance. When both armies are unable to carry out large-scale offensive operations. This is also due to weather conditions - this year, the winter turned out to be warm, in the east of Ukraine the land is now limp, and this is the main epicenter where the fighting is taking place. In addition, the Russian army is losing its advantage in artillery, and the entire power of the Russian military is based on the widespread use of artillery. This is the backbone of her firepower, and she is losing that advantage. And if earlier the Ukrainian army had a qualitative superiority in the means of fire impact, then we are gradually coming to the conclusion that the Ukrainian army will soon have a quantitative superiority. Now there has been a balance, but there is one “but”: if the Ukrainian military has the ability to accumulate resources - combat-ready units supplied with ammunition and weapons for offensive operations, then Russia does not have such an opportunity.
At the moment, the Ukrainian army, with the forces of three to five brigades, is ready to carry out tactical-level offensive operations for one to two weeks, but this is not enough. I believe that one of the reasons why Zelensky visited the US was because Ukraine need a lot of weapons for a large-scale offensive in the south of the country. Resources are needed so that at least ten Ukrainian brigades can conduct combat operations for a month or two, and these are ammunition compositions, fuel compositions, and all this must be brought to Ukraine. The process is underway, but to what extent you have reached the level where you can already afford to start these hostilities, I still have little evidence to talk about it.
As for the Russian army, it has a reserve of 100 thousand people, which they have not yet attracted, but they have no artillery, and no military equipment for them. There are no MLRS for them to make full-time armed units with all the necessary support. That is, there is a balance on the battlefield, but Ukraine's ability to launch an offensive operation is higher than that of the Russian Federation."
