Ukraine is unlikely to repeat last summer's counter-offensive this summer, while Russia continues to focus on the Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson oblasts.

Russian troops have been able to make in recent weeks in the eastern approaches to the city of Chassiv Yar, Donetsk oblast, following the start of the northern offensive from May.

On the other hand, Karus said, there can be no talk at present of Ukrainian troops leaving the Chassiv Yar area.

Speaking to "Ukraina stuudio" on Monday, Karus said: "Chassiv Yar is yet another example of this; how Russia makes very intensive efforts to keep tensions high on the whole front, to ensure that Ukraine cannot create freed-up units anywhere."

"And this is essentially a genuine example of a war of attrition, where indirect fire, with grenades, with all these kinds of long-range weapons, you completely disable all that infrastructure, in the long-run. It is obviously easier for units in that situation to retreat from certain positions, to take up the next positions," Karus continued.

"Let us recall that it has actually has taken them practically three months to get hold of this one micro-region around Chassiv Yar. I wouldn't start talking about the Ukrainians having abandoned Chassiv Yar," he added.

Russian troops are also intently trying to advance near the town of Toretsk, south of Chassiv Yar (see maps).

According to Karus, this is an example of Russian troops being active along the entire front line, from Kherson city, which Russia pulled out of in late 2022, to the area to the north of Kharkiv.

This demonstrates that the Russian troops have received some kind of order from the regime to advance, he added.

Karus said: "I would refer to Vladimir Putin's statement last week about when we can start talking about a truce.

"We are talking about the frontiers of the Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts being reached, about the Zaporizhzhia oblast and the Kherson oblast, so naturally some kind of edicts have been issued. Whether Putin is actually thinking about some kind of truce, or whether a type of 'painful border' is going to be drawn somewhere, I cannot say, but he has made it very clear what his current goal is," the chief of staff added.

"Certainly in some way the elimination of the so-called tactical arc that the Russians had created south of Bakhmut would again help them gain units by truncating the front line, as it were, for them."

According to Karus, Russia may not currently have the strength to take the four L-D-Z-K oblasts to the extent it desires.

He said: "It's taken them 10 years to win in the Luhansk and Donetsk oblasts. We probably have to accept for the moment that they have taken quite large areas of both Zaporizhia and Kherson oblasts, but at the same time the Ukrainian army, via mobilization, via training support, is still powerful enough that it can still tire out the constant Russian onslaught to such an extent that they cannot operate quite freely everywhere."

"Now, wherever they try to conduct a major offensive operation, they can certainly take these units from somewhere else, from another area, and then start to operate more in one or two specific zones," Karus went on.

In order to hold out for the next six months, Ukraine will have to stabilize the front line and wear down the enemy, he argued.

"Right now, the main issue is to stabilize the front as far as possible, and sad as it is to say, but to wear down the enemy as much as possible. Although various Russian so-called commentators or officials talk about how excellent their recruitment is, at some point the pain threshold is reached. Certainly Russia has got its defense industry operational, so obviously Ukraine is not in the same league on that."

"The key thing for us is that Europe maintains its unity, that Europe really stands behind Ukraine, that it continues to provide arms aid, humanitarian aid, energy aid; everything that helps to keep this society functioning. In this way, I think that Ukraine will be able to successfully hold out for six months, while at the same time utilizing all the resources that Europe has, in order to definitely create for itself the kind of operational-strategic reserve which can be counter-attacked with," the major general went on.

Last summer Ukraine attempted a major counter-offensive, but Karus says it is now trying to hold out for this summer, so that Russian forces human resources and equipment are depleted as much as possible.

"Then likely for another month or two months beyond that, to try to do something on some of the quieter sections and observe if the Russians can respond. Perhaps we should test the situation with the other side."

Chasiv Yar, literally "quiet ravine" has been anything but, and was the scene of a corps-level Russian attack in April this year in which the attackers suffered casualties at least in the thousands, and according to some reports in the tens of thousands – even up to nearly 100,000 all told.

Fighting was renewed with the northern offensive and Russia recently claimed it had taken control of part of the city of around 13,000 inhabitants, pre-war.

Russia has been making very slow progress in its approach to the town since the northern offensive started two months ago; the move towards Kharkiv was likely a feint given that far too few troops were deployed compared with what would be needed to take Ukraine's second city.

Front-line maps are here and here.

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