Name it a countercounteroffensive. Two months after the Ukrainian armed forces launched twin counteroffensives in jap and southern Ukraine, quickly liberating Kharkiv and Kherson Oblasts from months of brutal Russian occupation, Russian forces pushed again.

However the place the Ukrainian counteroffensives resulted in main breakthroughs for the Ukrainians—and galloping retreats by native Russian troops—the Russian countercounteroffensive is a brutal, bloody slog that seems to be killing extra Russians than Ukrainians. Worse for the Russians, they’re not gaining important floor.

Three weeks in the past, the Russians attacked west of Donetsk, the capital of the separatist Donetsk Individuals’s Republic. Their goal: to wrest management of all of Donetsk Oblast from the Ukrainians. Russian and separatist regiments and mercenaries from The Wagner Group attacked the Ukrainian garrisons in Bakhmut, Siversk, Pavlivka and different settlements in western Donetsk.

It’s not going nicely for the Russians and their allies. “The Ukrainians are preventing a really, very profitable cellular protection,” U.S. Military Gen. Mark Milley, the chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Workers, told reporters on Wednesday.

The continued battle for Pavlivka, 25 miles southwest of Donetsk, is a tragic microcosm of Russia’s failing marketing campaign. For 3 weeks, the Russian marine corps’ one hundred and fifty fifth and fortieth Naval Infantry Brigades and different forces have been attempting, and failing, to pry the Ukrainian 72nd Mechanized Brigade from Pavlivka, which earlier than the struggle had a inhabitants of two,500.

The marines lost as many as 300 troops killed, wounded or lacking in just the first few days of their assaults on Pavlivka. The losses continued over the subsequent couple of weeks as Ukrainian artillery blasted uncovered Russian infantry and Ukrainian missile groups knocked out Russian tanks.

Aleksandr Khodakovsky, a infamous separatist commander in Donetsk Oblast, described Pavlivka as a “furnace” for the Russian marine brigades. The issue, Khodakovsky defined, is marine commanders’ incapacity to pay attention their surviving forces with a view to defeat Ukrainian troops at crucial factors within the defensive position and obtain a breakthrough. “Planning errors have led to unjustified losses with a meager end result,” Khodakovsky wrote.

It’s attainable Russian forces cling to the southern fringe of Pavlivka—the “meager end result” Khodakovsky referenced. However capturing a couple of blocks of a tiny village isn’t price the price of tons of or hundreds of lives in two of the Russians’ few intact brigades. The one hundred and fifty fifth and fortieth Naval Infantry Brigades, which at their peak energy every oversaw 3,000 troops, certainly can’t maintain these sorts of losses for much longer.

The outlook is bleak for the Kremlin because the Ukrainian counterattack positive aspects momentum and the Russian countercounterattack falters. “The Ukrainians have achieved success after success after success and the Russians have failed each single time,” Milley stated. “They’ve misplaced strategically, they’ve misplaced operationally, and I repeat, they misplaced tactically.”