--- title: How Ukraine Turned the Tide Against Russia description: Ukraine's counter-offensive against Russians is proving spectacularly successful. Admiral James Stavridis explains why canonical: https://time.com/6213007/ukraine-offensive-against-russia/ author: James Stavridis article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2022-09-14T08:00:08.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:43:23.521Z article:section: Ideas og:title: How Ukraine Turned the Tide Against Russia og:description: Ukraine's counter-offensive against Russians is proving spectacularly successful. Admiral James Stavridis explains why og:url: https://time.com/6213007/ukraine-offensive-against-russia/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt012d2baea489f98c/698a356786f68e09456f199a/GettyImages-1243199275.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1024 og:image:height: 576 og:image:alt: Russia-Ukraine war og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: How Ukraine Turned the Tide Against Russia twitter:description: Ukraine's counter-offensive against Russians is proving spectacularly successful. Admiral James Stavridis explains why twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt012d2baea489f98c/698a356786f68e09456f199a/GettyImages-1243199275.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # How Ukraine Turned the Tide Against Russia > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. 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Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-network-2026q3/newsletters?i=dd3ef978-c08f-47ce-9148-681d38561078&cr=time-nl-network-2026q3-v1) ## Video: Watch How Ukrainian Pilots Are Training and Preparing to Fly U.S. Fighter Jets [Watch (HLS stream): Watch How Ukrainian Pilots Are Training and Preparing to Fly U.S. Fighter Jets](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/i3BnHfBE.m3u8) (2:40)  _Published 2022-08-19. Here's an exclusive look inside the scrappy, crowdsourced virtual reality training program Ukrainians have built to prepare in case the U.S. ever grants use of its A-10 Warthog planes. Developed in the 1970s, the planes were designed with the specific purpose of destroying Russian tanks._ by [James Stavridis](https://time.com/author/james-stavridis/) ## James Stavridis Sep 14, 2022 8:00 AM UTC  A damaged Russian tank is seen after Russian Forces withdrawal as Russia-Ukraine war continues in Balakliia, Kharkiv Oblast, Ukraine on September 13, 2022. A damaged Russian tank is seen after Russian Forces withdrawal as Russia-Ukraine war continues in Balakliia, Kharkiv Oblast, Ukraine on September 13, 2022. Metin Aktas-Anadolu Agency/Getty Images by [James Stavridis](https://time.com/author/james-stavridis/) ## James Stavridis Sep 14, 2022 8:00 AM UTC It has been a striking week of progress for Ukrainian forces in a war that had appeared to be in a grinding stalemate. In a dual-axis offensive, Kyiv’s forces have suddenly conducted a near-blitzkrieg level operation in the oblast of Kharkiv, near Ukraine’s second largest city, that has resulted in retaking over [6,000 square km](https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/ukraine-has-retaken-6000-sq-km-land-zelenskiy-2022-09-12/) of territory seized by the Russians since the start of the war in February. Most military analysts in the west were pleasantly surprised, while there has been rumblings of real discontent among even the most ardent supporters of Vladimir Putin in Moscow. What happened, and will Ukrainian successes continue as the fall unfolds? First and most importantly, the massive weapons systems delivered to the Ukrainians by the U.S. and our NATO allies are now having decisive effect on the battlefield. Most dramatically, the High Mobility Artillery Rocket System ([HIMARS](https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/09/us/ukraine-weapons-rockets.html)) is confounding Russian defenses. It allows extremely precise destruction of critical Russian logistic nodes, negating the advantage Moscow has in conventional artillery pieces. But beyond HIMARS, there are a plethora of modern NATO military systems which the Ukrainians have quickly mastered, ranging from air defense systems protecting Ukrainian forces on the ground to high tech missiles that can destroy Russian aircraft and radars. While NATO has thus far declined to transfer high speed jets to the Ukrainians (discussions continue concerning both MIG-29s and F-16s), the airspace over much of Ukraine remains contested, taking away another critical advantage Russia assumed it would have. The ground campaign has been significantly aided by the transfer to the Ukrainians of highly capable small unmanned offensive aircraft, including for the [Switchblade “suicide drone”](https://www.cbsnews.com/news/switchblade-drone-how-the-kamikaze-anti-tank-weapon-works/) and other variants that have led to the destruction of numerous Russian tanks and armored personnel carriers. Conventional howitzers and massive transfers of ammunition for them, alongside body armor, communications gear, and combat vehicles are helping inflict tens of thousands of casualties (as high as 80,000) on Russian forces. This has also cratered Russian morale, leading to reports of Russian forces simply abandoning their positions and fleeing the battlefield. At sea, western assistance has made the Russian Black Sea Fleet extremely wary, particularly after the sinking of their flagship, the [Moskva](https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-61103927) several months ago. A combination of maritime drones and medium-range cruise missiles prevent the Russians from attempting any amphibious assault behind Ukrainian lines. Without the maritime assistance, the massive port of Odessa—the last significant lifeline to international markets for Ukrainian exports—would be at risk. **_Read More:_** [**_Ukraine Is Our Past and Our Future_**](https://time.com/6164810/ukraine-is-our-past-and-our-future/) Tying it all together in terms of equipment has been a steady infusion of two other crucial elements in the Ukrainian successes: training and intelligence. As Supreme Allied Commander at NATO a decade ago, I spent time with the Ukrainian armed forces, and they were hungry to learn. Over the intervening years, a steady drumbeat of military exercises—in the air, at sea, and ashore—have gradually improved the Ukrainian’s ability to operate alongside NATO units and quickly adapt to the war they face today. Above all, this training has given the Ukrainians the ability to do what the Russians have failed at so miserably: provide a steady flow of ammunition, food, fuel, and communications forward; and to conduct “combined arms” operations which knit together close air support, artillery, tanks, and infantry maneuver.  The author (right) with Admiral Viktor Maksymov who was Commander of the Naval Forces of the Ukrainian Armed Forces from March 2010 until June 2012. Courtesy of NATO But perhaps the most important element of western support has been providing exquisite intelligence and very useful advice to Kyiv. While U.S. intelligence is far from perfect, it has been able to give the Ukrainians long-dwell assessments of Russian positions, vulnerable logistic nodes, troop and armor movements, maritime dispositions of the Black Sea Fleet, and a sense of general Russian intentions. This has been coupled with steady, sensible military advice from the NATO commands with whom the Ukrainians are very comfortable working, notably the U.S. and the U.K. All of that has been vital, but the real reason the Ukrainians are succeeding cannot be measured in terms of technology, ammunition, or even intelligence. At the heart of their success is an absolute determination to win. On the front lines of this war are soldiers who know that behind them are their children, their elders, their cities, and their civilization. They are led by an inspirational figure, [Volodymyr Zelensky](https://time.com/6171277/volodymyr-zelensky-interview-ukraine-war/), who seems to appear everywhere on the battlefield. Across the lines are Russian troops who in many cases have no idea why they are embroiled in a vicious war of aggression against a nation they regarded as a partner and friend not many years ago. Many are conscripts, the competence of their generals is clearly questionable, and their losses are staggering. Their leader in Moscow, Vladimir Putin, cannot sensibly explain the reason for the carnage in which they find themselves trapped. There are many twists and turns ahead in the Ukrainian War, and Russia still has ugly cards to play—massive attacks on civilian population centers, destroying critical infrastructure, individual assassinations, and war crimes to terrorize the population, chemical weapons, cyber-attacks. At the dark end of the spectrum is the use of a tactical nuclear weapon. But given the confluence of high-tech equipment, conventional weapons, intelligence, and military advice—coupled with the fighting spirit of Zelensky and his armed forces—I would not bet against the Ukrainians. Their advances will likely continue as the autumn unfolds toward an as yet uncertain conclusion to this terrible war. ## Transcript 10 pieces Brewery. So Ukraine has been getting a lot of support from the west from the United States Military, Support weapons, but they still are asking for a lot more advanced weaponry and they also need training in how to use the more advanced Weaponry that the West has been providing a lot of Western countries. Have also been providing some of that training even for weapon systems. That Ukraine doesn't have you. So Ukrainian Armed Forces, Ukrainian soldiers officers have been able to go abroad to learn how to use systems that hasn't yet provided, but they hope in the future of the United States. The Europeans are going to give the weapon systems that Ukraine needs, and they're already starting to train even for the weapon systems. If they don't have the day, I got to visit one of these training centers where the ukrainians are learning how to use an airplane to fly an airplane on American one. Called the A-10 Warthog is designed a long time ago in the 1970s Produced with the specific aim of taking out Soviet tanks in a potential war between the United States and Soviet Union the ukrainians. Now, say that the time to use this weapon is, because you have a Soviet Russian tanks attacking Ukrainian territory season Ukrainian territory, and the United States happens to have an airplane that is specifically designed to take out tanks on the plains of Europe. So the ukrainians have gone ahead and started training how to use these planes before they get them. They're using virtual reality goggles and flight simulators to try to get as close as they can to learn how to fly these planes before the United States makes the decision to actually provide them. And the simulators are pretty convincing. I tried one of them on just now got a bit of vertigo and felt a bit queasy and ended by catapulting out of the plane and the pilot to your say that if they get close enough to learn how to use these planes if doing, They provide them that can really make the difference in this war that can really be a turning point in the conflict where the cranium Air Force and he painted on forces can not only defend themselves against the Russian attack but start to take back some of the territory that Russia has occupied. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"OpinionNewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/6213007/ukraine-offensive-against-russia/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/6213007/ukraine-offensive-against-russia/"},"headline":"How Ukraine Turned the Tide Against Russia","datePublished":"2022-09-14T08:00:08.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T07:43:23.521Z","description":"Ukraine's counter-offensive against Russians is proving spectacularly successful. 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