Russian President Vladimir Putin has apparently ordered Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu to halt the counteroffensive of Ukrainian forces by early October, ISW reports.
"An insider source in the Kremlin said that Putin reportedly gave Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu a deadline of one month until early October 2023 to improve the situation on the front line, stop the Ukrainian counteroffensive and regain the initiative," the ISW report said.
However, experts at the Institute for the Study of War point out that this information may indicate the strategy of the Russian military command, which is likely to continue to order continuous counterattacks, hoping to bring the Ukrainian counteroffensive to a climax, even if it requires heavy casualties among Russian military resources.
The report also recalls that Putin first acknowledged the start of the Ukrainian counteroffensive on June 9 and claimed that Ukrainian forces had not made significant progress due to strong Russian defenses and had suffered significant losses in personnel and equipment.
"Putin and the Kremlin present Russian defensive operations as a major battlefield victory, and the constant Russian counterattacks allow the Kremlin to claim that these operations are isolated victories amid a general lack of Russian success on other parts of the front," ISW reports.
