General David Petraeus believes that Ukrainian troops will be able to push back Russian forces even further this summer, depending on the supply of weapons and strategy.
Source. He told this CNN at the Munich Security Conference in Germany.
Details. Success will require a complementary approach, with several types of combat units supporting each other, Petraeus said.
In particular, Petraeus, who served as a U.S. and coalition commander in the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and later as CIA director, believes that the main goal is to cut the Krym Bridge.
"If you do that, you can start isolating Crimea, reduce it as a logistical hub, and then divide the Russian forces. And then, if you can take down the Kerch Strait bridge, you really isolate them (the Russians)," he added.
Petraeus said that if this scenario works, combined with the long-range weapons for HIMARS, the conflict will have "a completely different dynamic."
He also said that Ukrainians who are learning how to use Western weapons are doing so at an impressive rate.
"Reports (from our Western colleagues) show that Ukrainians are mastering their training at lightning speed. In half of the first day, they go through what should take two days, and they have to speed up their training. And even when they come back to the barracks after a very long training day, they read the written manuals. They want to get back into combat, to get back to protecting their families," he said.
"I think they will be able to achieve the kind of troop-wide effects that the Russians have not achieved," Petraeus emphasized.
The Ukrainian military is training with Leopard 2 tanks in Poland, the British government said earlier this month that it would start training Ukrainian pilots in NATO-standard fighter jets, and the first group of Ukrainians completed training at a US base in Germany on Friday.