Russia still holds the initiative on the battlefield in Ukraine - Slaidins

RIGA - On the battlefield in Ukraine, Russia still holds the initiative, Major Janis Slaidins, staff officer of the Latvian National Guard, said in an interview with Latvian Radio.

He admitted that although Russia is able to attract enough soldiers for a lot of money, it does not have enough forces to attack completely along the entire front of more than 1,200 kilometers, but the Russians are strategically creating "points of gravity" in some places to keep "pushing forward meter by meter".

Slaidins cited the Russian army's weaknesses as a lack of manpower, which is being addressed by trying to attract soldiers with generous sums of money, but which does not produce well-trained and high-quality soldiers.

There is no shortage of people from other countries willing to fight alongside Russia, Slaidins added, citing the example of two Chinese who were captured in Ukraine a few days ago and had fought alongside the Russians. The expert believes that this was a private initiative of the Chinese themselves and not an official, centralized task from China. If China were to send someone to fight against Ukraine, it would more likely be some high-level officers, advisers or observers, not regular soldiers, the expert said.

Commenting on the progress made by the Ukrainian side on Russian territory, Slaidins noted that the strikes on energy infrastructure have stopped, as foreseen in the agreement reached with the US, but in the meantime Ukrainian drone strikes on military facilities on Russian territory are continuing. "The use of drones, as the situation has shown in recent weeks, has increased, but of course we do not see these missile strikes with Western weapons on Russian territory, which means that there is definitely a denial to Ukraine."

Asked what practical things Ukraine is most lacking in the war at the moment, the officer replied that they are, first of all, drones of various kinds. Although Ukraine has recently made great strides in the development and production of drones, it is not able to provide all the drones it needs for the war, so the drones it receives in donations are very useful to it on the front.

At the national level, however, the allies should think most about air defense systems, Slaidins said, pointing out that these could stop the many strikes that Russia has recently launched at Ukraine's civilian infrastructure, hoping to create chaos inside Ukraine and trigger civilian protests against the Ukrainian government and its failure to protect them.