Retired maj. general predicts where Ukraine’s renewed offensive will take place

On Thursday, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky said his government is aware of Russian plans for future operations in Ukraine and indicated that they were working to counter Moscow's moves. Maj. Gen. James "Spider" Marks (Ret.) joins CNN's Wolf Blitzer to discuss the opportunities of Ukraine's renewed offensive as they expect the delivery of western tanks. #CNN #News

57 comments

  1. Hopefully soon the Kremlin Gremlin’s inner circle will show him an amazing view out of a very, very tall window

    1. @Hunter&Gatherer The only chance would be for a few low level generals to hold a “briefing” or some other kind of meeting and coordinate some form of take down. I say low level because I feel like they might be more inclined to visit the frontlines and see their troops massacred pointlessly. Regardless, it’s a long shot.

    2. THE FREE WORLD, MUST REMOVE THE root of the INFECTION; TWO OR MORE WELL PLACED, ICBMS’ INTO THAT GREMLIN….ER KREMLIN, AND VOILA ! NO MORE ‘ INFECTION ‘. Shootin n’ lootin pootin, gone, not a problem no more. WE ARE JUST TREATING THE ‘ EFFECT ‘ OF PUTIN; NEED TO REMOVE THE SOURCE F I R S T . THEN, diagnose the patient, and REBUILD WITH OLIGARCHS’ 350 BILLION which are presently ‘ on hold ‘.

    3. Und wie viele unschuldige Menschen sterben bis dahin noch, Depp.
      Gehen Sie zum Verbrecher Selenskyj und jammern dort

    4. That would be great, but the worrying part of that fantasy is that we don’t know if the person replacing Putin would be any better. He did a good job purging the government of anyone who could be a competent leader and eliminated anyone opposed to his regime.

  2. Taking the Crimean peninsula won’t be that difficult after the “land bridge” is cut, the Kerch Straight bridge is reduced to smoking stumps and all supplies of food, water, weapons and ammunition are cut off.

    1. they can still supply via the sea, but it’ll be much more difficult since those ships will be fat targets. Once the land bridge is cut though, it’s just a matter of time. I don’t think it’ll be fast though, unless the Russians decide to totally rout. While that is a possibility, it’s not something anyone can predict with any degree of certainty.

    2. Don’t even need to make the bridge stumps.
      Bridges are incredibly simple to defend, would be suicidal for ruzzians to attempt to utilize.

  3. Ukraine they get a lot of their ammo and other supplies from the dead Russian. These are warriors you always want to have your back someday. Slava Ukraine united we all stand Freedom Is Love. Be kind and listen to your neighbors

  4. Glad to see Adam involved in these conversations now as a former congressman who also served as a colonel in the Air Force.

    1. @Dragon Fly Geez. The fact that I oppose totalitarian dictators and authoritarians, including those in the US, Iran, Russia, China, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, and the like, has caused me to have to deal with many labels being thrown at me, from “Socialist”, “Communist”, “Decadent Western”, “Satanist”, etc.

      I’m really not sure what to do with “fake liberal”! Oh, well, at least I know how to spell morals, and I’m sticking with them.

  5. If news media is predicting where the next Ukraine offensive will take place, you can be very sure that it is not where the next Ukraine offensive will take place. 😉

    1. This war has barely began, we are yet to see the might of the combined Russian Forces —the Ukrainians have been extensively utilizing the Asov and foreign regiments and the Russians have been utilizing the Wagner auxiliary forces, either way—the war is finally here, now that German panzers have once again to attempt to breakdown Russian defensive lines….
      In the meantime, there is NO HOPE for negotiated peace, until Ukraine exorcizes its desire for a conventional battle or two, against the murderous kremlin autocracy…..

  6. Wouldn’t it have been interesting, if all this information and conjecture was being made available, during World War 2.
    The forces on the ground are really happy that all this is being done.

  7. Adam Kinzinger is a great American and a solid politician. For him to be chastised by the republican extremist show how off-center they are. Ukraine is fighting for their country and freedom from a tyrant. We are doing right supporting them with tanks and other high quality weapons. The hope is Putin will give up with what he is facing or is deposed and the new regime withdraws to their borders

  8. It’s hard to see an effectiveness for massed tank units in this battle space. The supply column will be very long, slow and visible. They can probably survive and achieve more with mobile infantry vehicles backed up by motorized large bore artillery firing from 25-35 kms from the front lines. The Bradleys, Strikers, Marders, BMTs are probably what’s going to count if the tactics are good. Perhaps a few tanks thrown in here and there for local specific support of dismounted troops.
    For a 25km-wide breakthrough you’d probably need 250 mobile artillery (155, 102, etc) and 250 IFV upfront, maybe 50 tanks at the outset. So maybe 40,000 troops, with 1 rotation of another 40,000, and 15,000 replacemets to sustain a month of fighting, with another 40,000 logistics support within 5-50 km from the front lines. So that’s something in the order of 150,000 troops concentrated on a 25 km front — which will widen to 35km after 10 km advance, and 45km after 20 km advance.
    It’s a huge enterprise to keep all this combined large guns, mobile infantry moving forward, rotating, covering flanks, and being supplied. Effectively, after an advance of 50 km these troops will be defending the perimeter of three sides of a square measuring 150 km. That’s a huge area. Then you can probably throw tanks forward if fixed resistance is crumbling.

    1. Doing that with no air support and with against a force with more artillery over open ground with extremely difficult logistics and weather, though any attack like this will need to be in spring or late spring.

  9. It sounds like we need universal equipment for NATO for this reason. The learning curve needs to be short and repairs easier to handle.

  10. It needs to be repeated that there are several important factors that are leading to the long and slow evolution of growing readiness to provide greater military support:
    1. At first they were afraid that Ukraine wouldn’t hold out, so why provide weapons that will be wasted or captured by the enemy (like in Afghanistan).
    2. As the Russians kept escalating and more evidence of war crimes and then genocide came out, the need to do more was recognized
    3. The fact that the Ukrainians have been good at not striking at Russian civilian sites, and have been responsible with the arms provided, results in confidence that more can be safely offered.

    1. @Patrick McPhee Your “contribution” to the debate has been noted.

      I would suggest that generals, including retired generals, are not noted for their “mindless banter”. They may however reflect official propaganda, which is interesting in itself.

      My contributions, as all others, should be considered “ideas” or “suggestions”. Please verify any statement you find questionable.

    2. Don’t you hate when you reply to a comment, then that comment disappears, and now your own response sits there, referring to nothing. Sigh, oh well.

    3. Indeed George, about point 1) there has been a 20 years idiot policies and from US and from their allies. They trusted people they should not be trusted at all. They gave them weapons, money, support, kind of visa to Europe (1000000 Merkel’s friends) for nothing. Afghans abroad are into petty crime, killing (last this week in UK), being well known as primitive communities and the men there just cowards. The US should have a chat with the talibans to get some weaponry released and put them at gunpoint, à la guerre comme à la guerre. Done with kidding and no vista to the countries that do not support in the war in Ukraine.

    4. Can you tell me what genocide is taking place? I’m all on Ukrainian side but false accusations lead to nothing more than dilution of proper and important terms. Genocide has its meaning, and it’s not taking place in Ukraine.

    5. @Dreiz Dreiz Yes. Afghanistan is a huge tragedy. There were problems from the beginning of the invasion (which did have some legitimate aims), but that fell apart, and with the invasion of Iraq (which was based on a lie). Afghanistan was soon doomed. Yet for many years money and lives were sacrificed there. There were many good people among the Afghans (teachers, doctors, lawyers, nurses), but the ones who got out most easily were those who were in the army or government and made connections. Some of these had good intentions, many did not (joining for the power and influence or just for the military training and supplies). Many of these were the people who already had connections to tribal military/political gangs and who knew how to keep power as the tides changed.

      Funny how you never know how past mistakes will haunt you in the future. Now is the opportunity to make some corrections. Too bad Russia is so slow to learn from its past mistakes. Let’s hope their opportunity will quickly approach.

  11. I think even though talking Crimea will be tough, geographically it be will be easier than taking the Luhansk and Donbass because the latter have a border with Russia. Crimea has that weak link, the bridge

  12. They need to give Ukraine the basic weapons that they are asking for (tanks, jets, longer-range missiles) so that this conflict doesn’t drag on forever. Give them what they need to win.

    1. You are right, the longer we wait we prolong the Ukrainian suffrage and the sooner Ukranian wins the world economy can go back to business as usual!

  13. “Spider” Marks has always been wrong on everything. If he ever said that everything looked perfect, I’d be really worried for Ukraine.

  14. A very special interview! Thank you! Great respect for Lt. Col.Kinzinger and his eforts to preserve democracy as a Congressman on the January 6 Committee.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.