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Ukrainian army lacks strength for frontal breakthrough of Russia's defensive line — expert

According to researcher in the Center for Russian Studies at East China Normal University in Shanghai Cui Heng, the Ukrainian conflict has entered a stage where Moscow and Kiev are both seeking to stall the conflict "in the hope of exhausting the other"

BEIJING, August 21. /TASS/. The Ukrainian army is not strong enough to carry out a frontal breakthrough penetrating Russia’s first line of defense, Cui Heng, researcher in the Center for Russian Studies at East China Normal University in Shanghai, said.

"However, Ukraine's military is not strong enough to make a frontal breakthrough [in armed confrontation with Russia]," the Global Times quoted the scholar as saying.

According to the expert, Kiev is trying to bypass the defense zone, thanks to which Russian troops have protected key Russian population centers from Ukrainian assaults.

According to Cui, the Ukrainian conflict has entered a stage where Moscow and Kiev are both seeking to stall the conflict "in the hope of exhausting the other."

On August 20, Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky said that Kiev would receive F-16 fighter jets from the Netherlands. In addition, Danish Defense Minister Jakob Ellemann-Jensen said that Copenhagen was ready to transfer 19 F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine, six of which would arrive by the end of the year.

On August 19-20, Ukraine made several attempts to attack Russian regions with drones: one fell on a military airfield near Novgorod, another crashed into the roof of a railway station in Kursk, and several others were shot down or suppressed over the Belgorod, Moscow and Rostov regions.

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