'Russia had too much time' Deadlock looms as Kyiv's counteroffensive runs out of steam

Ukraine's counteroffensive has stalled, with progress on the two principal axes on the southern front modest since it began on 4 June. Kyiv's forces have advanced about 10km south of Velyka Novosilka and 9km south of Orikhiv and there appears no prospect of a breakthrough as the weather turns.

- Dan Sabbagh

Last week, the reality was acknowledged by Gen Valerii Zaluzhnyi, the commander-inchief of Kyiv's military.

"Just like in the first world war, we have reached the level of technology that puts us into a stalemate," he said in an interview with the Economist, while in a related essay he added that the war, after nearly 21 months of fighting, "is gradually moving to a positional form".

Ukraine had been unable to break through dense Russian minefields, now laid to a depth of 15 to 20km, Zaluzhnyi said. The Zemledeliye remote truck minelaying system can lay down football fields of mines far faster than dismounted Ukrainian sappers can remove them, and the fear is that with more time Russia can develop a system of deep trenches beyond its existing fortified positions.

"We all hoped we would make more progress than we have," said Yuriy Sak, a former adviser to Ukraine's defence ministry. "By now we were hoping we would be in control of Tokmak," a strategic town on the road to Melitopol, which still lies 20km south of the furthest Ukrainian advance.

Breaking Russia's land bridge at Melitopol would require an advance another 70km south-west.

Some blame western politicians for taking so long to supply tanks, long-range missiles and F-16 fighters to Ukraine.