The main goal of Ukraine's counteroffensive will be to break the corridor between Russia and Crimea, ex-commander of US forces in Europe Ben Hodges is convinced. DW spoke to him about the prospects for counterattack success.
"I believe the Ukrainian General Staff has done a tremendous job protecting the information and maintaining the troops they (Ukraine) will need when they inevitably launch this counteroffensive. I think the battles around Bakhmut had a very high price, but it was necessary. The General Staff saw that it could stop the Russian troops in Bakhmut and exhaust them, forcing them to use a lot of resources without Ukraine having to withdraw its armored troops to Bakhmut. After all, they will need them when they launch their own counteroffensive, which I assume will take place on a very narrow section of the front, to have a decisive effect, on breaking through the land corridor between Crimea and Russia. Crimea is a crucial territory. You can kill every Russian soldier within a 200 kilometer radius around Bakhmut, but it will not change the strategic situation. But if Crimea is liberated, it will change everything. So the counteroffensive will be aimed at liberating Crimea. And the rest of Donbas, I think, will be later.
Of course, I am constantly impressed by their discipline, and understanding of what is needed to conduct an operation of this scale. They actively prepared and continue to prepare to prepare logistics and bring the troops to combat readiness. There are many trainings in Ukraine, and there were also trainings in Germany, Poland and other places. They train for what we call combined arms combat - tanks, artillery, infantry, mechanized infantry, engineers and, I assume, close air support as well.
But the Russians are not stupid, they know that it will happen somewhere. So they will try to somehow act in advance. Obviously, they put a lot of effort into building trenches, barriers, and more. But I think that the Ukrainians will choose the right moment and place, when the weather, the condition of the roads - all the conditions will be favorable in order to attract more long-range weapons. And this will enable them to make Crimea vulnerable. Aiming at command posts, and ammunition warehouses - you can hit a large number of troops with the help of targeted strikes on such individual targets."
