Ukraine War Slips Toward Violent Stalemate

Ukraine’s 47th Mechanized Brigade was equipped with Western armored vehicles and trained for a lightning summer counteroffensive that was supposed to tip the war firmly in Kyiv’s favor.

These days, after advancing only a few miles over several months in the south, the brigade is fighting to fend off a Russian attack on a small industrial city in eastern Ukraine.

“It’s tough. Their advantage is in the quantity of people,” said one soldier in the brigade. “They are coming nonstop.”

The brigade’s shift from offense to defense reflects a move to a new phase in the conflict as Ukraine’s top commanders acknowledge that the counteroffensive didn’t achieve the desired progress. Ukraine’s top military officer, Gen. Valeriy Zaluzhniy, described the war as a stalemate in an interview with The Economist, saying there would most likely be no significant breakthrough.