According to military expert Claudia Major, Ukraine will still need a lot of time to liberate the entire country from the Russian occupiers. In the stern podcast "Ukraine – the situation", Major evaluates the recent announcements of a major offensive by President Volodymyr Zelenskyj as a "political and psychological message". The Ukrainian troops are exhausted, have to make up for heavy losses and need additional weapons.

The announced reconquest of the areas in the east of the country is therefore "a long-term perspective". However, the Ukrainians would do everything possible to improve their position as much as possible before the winter.

The head of the Security Policy research group at the Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik, who represents her colleague Carlo Masala from the Bundeswehr University in Munich in the podcast, accused Russia of deliberately destroying infrastructure from hospitals to water supplies in order to increase the suffering of the civilian population. "They're trying to wear the population down," says Major. Especially with a view to the winter, this is a major challenge for the Ukrainian leadership.

In the stern podcast, Major repeats the demand that western-style main battle tanks and armored personnel carriers be delivered to Ukraine quickly. The war crimes discovered in the liberated areas and the shelling of nuclear power plants showed how urgent it was to push back the occupiers.

Editor's note: Security expert Claudia Major is replacing Carlo Masala. It will be heard in two more episodes.