Bild: Putin's Army's Summer Offensive On Ukraine Has Actually Failed

Russia is not even capable of defending its airspace.

The fourth summer of full-scale war continues in Ukraine. Despite the Kremlin's expectations that Ukrainian defenses would fail, the Russian army's large-scale summer offensive has been unsuccessful.

Moscow has failed to achieve key strategic objectives and even discovered serious weaknesses in its own air defense system. This is according to Bild.

The "fortress" Pokrovsk has stood its ground

Russian troops have been trying to take control of Pokrovsk since January, but all their assaults have ended in failure. In early August, the occupiers briefly entered the city center, but three weeks later they were destroyed or captured.

"We are holding the city and have prepared some surprises for the Russians. The military situation is better than it seems on the maps," the Ukrainian officer said.

Kursk and Putin's "buffer zone"

In late March, the Russians managed to push Ukrainian troops out of Kursk after eight months of fierce fighting, using thousands of North Korean mercenaries to do so. The publication called this operation "the biggest disgrace of the Russian war."

In response, the Kremlin announced the creation of a 600-kilometer "buffer zone" on the territory of three border regions of Ukraine. By the end of the summer, however, Russia controlled only about 70 kilometers along the border and was under serious pressure. Here, too, Putin's military forces failed completely.

Failure in the south

In the Kherson and Zaporizhzhya regions, which Russia formally annexed back in 2022, the front remained stable. Attempts at an offensive ended in failure, and in August Putin actually offered to curtail the operation in exchange for concessions from Kiev on Donbass.

Ukrainian drones against Russian air defense

The most telling failure of the summer was the helplessness of Russian air defense. Ukrainian drones have increasingly struck up to 1,200 kilometers deep within Russia, hitting oil refineries and infrastructure. Since the beginning of the year, about 17% of Russian refineries' production capacity has been destroyed. This has led to fuel shortages, queues at gas stations and rising prices inside the Russian Federation.

According to Bild, over the summer Russia captured only 1,800 square kilometers of Ukrainian territory - a mere 0.3% of the country's area. It was these figures that became one of Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky's arguments for a willingness to negotiate a ceasefire, but without following the Kremlin's ultimatums.

Defense expert Gustav Gressel said in a commentary for Bild that the Ukrainian army remains combat capable and is undergoing internal reorganization, while Russian forces are showing signs of exhaustion.

"In winter, when the ground freezes and the leaves fall from the trees, which means less protection from drones, the Russians will attempt a new offensive," he warned.

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