now blown up to become a huge, huge issue for him. no question. does not appear to be over. also joining us retired army major john spencer. he s the chair of urban warfare studies at the madison policy forum. major spencer, good to have you on. i wonder, imagine yourself serving in the u.s. military. and a private army crosses the border, takes over a city with essential functions of running a war in ukraine, and then drives two-thirds of the way to the capital. there s a deal that supposedly defuses the situation. but then you have the president go on international division saying accused that group of mutiny and betraying the country. looking at that, is there any sign that the dispute is over for russia? no, absolutely not. and if i was a soldier, especially a russian soldier in ukraine, i d be very concerned, very worried, morale is already low and now they re getting
the flooding has not stopped the fighting. ukraine s deputy defense minister says an offensive is taking place in several directions but u.s. officials say ukrainian forces have suffered losses of heavy equipment and soldiers as they met stiff resistance from russian forces in recent days. let s get perspective from john spencer. he chairs urban warfare studies at the madison policy forum. thanks for sharing your afternoon with us. first, i want to get your reaction to the reporting that you ukrainian forces have met a stiffer than expected resistance from the russians. now, i think that s expected. i think it s a clear sign that the counteroffensive we ve all been waiting for is on the way. we re out of the shaping operations and the ukrainians are attacking at multiple points across the front. they will find a weakness in the russian line. but there is no bloodless war so it s not surprising to me that they re meeting resistance.