Former Estonian Foreign Intelligence chief Rainer Saks linked the failure of the Armed Forces of Ukraine's (AFU) recent counteroffensive to a large number of defensive structures and Russia's superiority in the air.
"Russia considers it very important to hold the southern part [of the front], so more defensive lines have been built there. Ukraine tried to break through the Russian defense line in three places, but not with very energetic maneuverable units," Saks told Estonian media.
According to the Donetsk People's Republic's (DPR) former security minister, Victor Pinchuk, Russia has built several defense lines in the southern sector of the special military operation, and the strongest of them is the third, the "Surovikin line", which the Ukrainian Armed Forces (AFU) have not even reached.
Sergey Surovikin was commander of Russia's Joint Group of Forces in the Russian special military operation in Ukraine. In January he was replaced by Valery Gerasimov, Chief of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces.
The term "Surovikin line" was reportedly coined by the Western media at the end of 2022 to describe the Russian defensive structures that would cause great difficulties for the AFU to break through.
According to Russia's Defense Ministry, Ukrainian troops launched an offensive in five sectors of the Donetsk direction on 4 June but failed to achieve their goals.
Ukraine has touted its coming offensive since late 2022. It was first scheduled for the spring, then rescheduled to the summer. The Ukrainian government said the postponement was because of a shortage of weapons, all while pushing its Western donors to supply progressively heavier arms, including tanks, drones and fighter jets.
As pointed out by Russian President Putin, the attempted counteroffensive of 16 June resulted in Ukraine losing 186 tanks and 418 armored vehicles.