Although it has been very "lively" in the international community recently, the Russia-Ukraine conflict still cannot be ignored. The Russian army has recently attacked ferociously, and the Ukrainian army has suffered heavy setbacks on many fronts and suffered heavy losses. At the critical moment, Hungary finally relented, and Zelensky ushered in rare good news.
The year 2023 that has just passed has been a dark year for the Ukrainian army, which has not been able to continue its victory in 2022 and has instead suffered the worst losses since the start of the war between Russia and Ukraine.
The Russian-Ukrainian war in the past year mainly revolved around the "Battle of Bakhmut" and the "Spring Counteroffensive of the Ukrainian Army", both of which were completely defeated. In particular, the "spring counteroffensive" almost disabled all the 9 NATO brigades of the Ukrainian army, known as the "Nine King Kongs", and the estimated losses in the counteroffensive were as high as 140,000, which is almost all the elite main forces trained by NATO.
After resisting the Ukrainian counteroffensive, the Russian army also took the initiative to attack on multiple fronts, conquering the important military fortress Maryinka at the end of last year, and is still storming Avadiivka, which has been surrounded by the Ukrainian army on three sides. In addition, the West also predicts that the Russian army will counterattack Kharkiv, but the Ukrainian army's troops and equipment are already stretched.
The cemeteries of Ukrainian servicemen have been multiplied, and some old graves have been dug up to make room for "newcomers".
Due to the overall increase in Russia's military production capacity, the Russian army has gradually strengthened the use of missiles, drones and other long-range strike methods. Around the New Year, the Russian army launched the largest air strikes on the entire territory of Ukraine since the beginning of the war. It is worth mentioning that the Ukrainian army has called it the "largest scale" in the recent air raids of the Russian army, which shows that the scale of the Russian army has a tendency to be capped and not capped.
Some British experts said that Russia's three recent large-scale missile strikes have had a catastrophic impact on Ukraine's air defense system and brought huge losses, and it is difficult for Western countries to repair this situation.
The expert also believes that this tactic adopted by Russia is aimed at exhausting the Ukrainians and depleting their troops, weapons systems, economy and industry, while depleting the West's ability to support Ukraine.
The intensity of the Russian army's missile air strikes has been increasing
According to the latest statistics from the Russian side, the Russian army has destroyed 747 tanks and more than 2,300 armored vehicles since the beginning of the Ukrainian counteroffensive. Over the past six months, the Ukrainian army has lost more than 125,000 people and 16,000 weapons. On the heaviest day of the Ukrainian army's casualties, it lost 595 servicemen in one day and night.
The caliber of the Western media is that before the start of the war between Russia and Ukraine, the Ukrainian army had 200,000 experienced soldiers, who had experienced 8 years of war in Donbass, and their loyalty to the Ukrainian government and military quality were incomparable.
But in the 2 years of fighting, these 200,000 people were killed and wounded, and the current soldiers of the Ukrainian army are basically recruited after the war, most of them have not undergone strict and systematic military training, have almost no actual combat experience, and their loyalty is not very high.
Other data show that the average age of front-line soldiers in the Ukrainian army is as high as 40 years old, in other words, Ukraine's service-age personnel have been lost, and the situation of forced recruitment of soldiers by the Ukrainian army is becoming more and more undisguised, and the Ukrainian parliament has also decided to lower the age of conscription. At present, female soldiers and pregnant women have appeared on the front line, and it cannot be ruled out that minors will be seen on the battlefield in the future.
Pregnant women in the front-line troops of the Ukrainian army
However, for Ukraine, it is not completely without "good news".
Recently, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said at the EU budget meeting that Hungary will agree to the EU's 50 billion euro aid to Ukraine bill, but with an additional condition, requiring the unanimous approval of EU member governments when disbursing funds every year.
This 50 billion is related to Ukraine's financial problems for the next 3 to 4 years. Orban relented at this time, which was extremely beneficial to Zelensky politically and economically, at least a stone was laid down. But Orban's proposal also gives Hungary the power to block the release of funds every year, making the release uncertain.
Orban's change of attitude may be due to gain some goodwill within the EU, which may help him run for the presidency of the European Council. Recently, European Council President Charles Michel suddenly announced his early resignation, and if the EU is unable to launch a successor in the first half of the year, Hungary's Prime Minister Orban, who holds the rotating presidency of the EU, will become the "interim president".
Therefore, Orban may have made concessions for this reason, but if he succeeds in his interim presidency, he will have more initiative to limit EU aid to Ukraine.
However, it is not easy for Ukraine to get such mixed news internationally.