kelly cobiella, thank you so much for that reporting. general mccaffrey, what are your thoughts on the counter offensive progress here? well, i think ukraine should be very deliberate. i call this a reconnaissance force. you re trying to find places in the russian defenses that are weaker than others, trying to cause the russians to prematurely commit their reserves, but they re going about it in a very deliberate manner. they don t have adequate counter mine capability, the ukrainians. russians are very well dug in. so the ukrainians are still fighting and the security area, not in the main battle positions, ukrainians have two purposes, one is sever the land bridge between crimea and the donbas, and secondly, they re trying to recapture the move, and perhaps bag a bunch of russian prisoners in the process. it s a very tricky situation,
and this reconnaissance force, trying to find scenes and areas they can break through and then to commit their main forces. we still have seen only a very small number of the new nine or so western-equipped armored brigades and then, of course, when they do that, to achieve combined arms effects with tanks and infantly, with defense, with engineers, artillery, mortars and good command and control, logistics right up behind them and follow-on forces ready to exploit the opportunities that are created by the lead elements. i think that will happen, but no one can predict when they might find this opportunity. could it be around bakhmut from check of course, the prigozhin wagner group was withdrawn after its, quote, success the only success in the winter offensive that cost them some 20,000 lives, a staggering loss. will that be the location or will it be a little bit further
that i ve watched, saying we are staying with putin. so i think putin is scared. he s on the ground. he s probably behind the scenes, just trying to survive, dan and day out. what is all of this mean for the war in ukraine? again, i know it s early. it s hard to say. the russians have been doing very well. the ukrainians started what i would term a reconnaissance force. trying to find weak places in the line. 900 kilometer front. they run into the security zone only. they are running a heavy minefield. they don t have adequate air defense with them. and the tactical error part of the fight. they re not doing very well. they haven t yet committed their major nine brigades of nato modernized armor. the russians have really stalled this and initial phase of the attack. u.s. have not given them, developed over the last year of the war, either inadequate air
is at stake. it s going to be a very difficult period for putin to survive. what do you make of putin s absence during this crisis? you ve got 4000 people in the security force. he spends most of his time well outside moscow, and very heavily guarded compound. i think he has filtered sources of information. nobody wants to go in and tell the czar what s going on. i think he s lost control of this situation. behind the scenes, now, he still ostensibly owns the fsb, the domestic security, the national guard, and the riot police. never mind the senior officers or the russian army. several of whom are on video, that i ve watched, saying we are staying with putin. so i think putin is scared. he s on the ground. he s probably behind the scenes, just trying to survive, dan and day out. what is all of this mean for the war in ukraine? again, i know it s early. it s hard to say. the russians have been doing very well. the ukrainians started what i would term a reconnaissance force. tryi
Patrol Squadron 30 (VP-30), the “Pro’s Nest,” honored the end of service, or “sundown,” of the Lockheed P-3C Orion aircraft on Friday before it departed for “The Boneyard” at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Arizona.