What Happened To Ukraine's Promise Of A Big Southern Counteroffensive In August?

Politico: Ukraine has telegraphed its big counteroffensive for months. So where is it?  

As Kyiv’s artillery starts to hit Russian forces in the south, analysts are left wondering whether there’s more to come. 

KYIV — For two months, Ukraine has been signaling its intent to recapture the southern city of Kherson in what has been billed as a major counteroffensive and the moment that Kyiv turns the tide against Russia. 

What that push will look like is still a mystery, however. Ukrainian artillery and rockets provided by the U.S. and allies have smashed bridges and Russian ammunition depots close to the city, but the larger movement of infantry has yet to happen. Meanwhile, the Russians are reinforcing and digging in. 

Ukrainian officials have long said the fate of the war could be decided in the south and claimed that a series of suspicious attacks on Russian military installations far beyond the frontline — including two massive explosions at a Russian airbase in Crimea on Tuesday — indicated the counteroffensive had begun. 

But even with billions of dollars worth of weapons from across Europe and North America now in Ukrainian hands, real questions remain over whether it’s enough, and what enough might look like.  

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Update: Ukrainian Southern Counteroffensive ‘Unlikely’ as Russia Bolsters Forces (Moscow Times)  

WNU Editor: A lot of Western journalists are coming to the reluctant conclusion that the promised Ukrainian southern counteroffensive is not going to happen .... A three-week drive around Ukraine's front lines taught me this: The tide of the war is unlikely to turn any time soon (CNN).

 As to what is my take.

The big battles are still in Donetsk, and the casualties that I am hearing about from my friends and family in Ukraine are frightening. And now I am hearing that Kharkiv in the northern part of the country is now under threat. Ukraine does not have the resources to launch a massive counter-offensive in the southern part of the country. They are trying to hold onto what they have in the eastern part of the country with limited resources and manpower.