Below is an excerpt from this Newsweek article that quotes EMN Associate Director Matthew Hoh.

Russian President Vladimir Putin staked a large part of his war strategy over the the past few months on betting that Mother Nature would be on his side.

According to analysts, that plan failed to produce the results the Russian leader had desired and instead allowed Ukraine to regroup and mobilize against Russian forces.

Putin’s war in Ukraine reached its one-year mark on February 24, with intense fighting continuing throughout the war-torn country…

Former U.S. Marine Corps captain and State Department officer Matthew Hoh told Newsweek that “the Russians may have been bedeviled by warmer than usual weather, but I am also not sure if the Russian mobilization from last fall was going to have those mobilized soldiers, reconstituted units and new formations ready for a big winter offensive as was speculated.”

“Unfortunately, I think Russia is in better shape than is broadly believed, and certainly in better shape than Ukraine,” Hoh added. “It still has hundreds of thousands of unused reserve soldiers as well as regular army units that have not been committed, the ability to open a northern front against Ukraine and has lightly utilized its air forces to this point.”

Read the full article here.