Ex-Royal Navy Officer Explains Russia’s Slow Advance
Former Royal Navy officer Steve Jermy says Russia’s slow advance is deliberate, aimed at exhausting Ukrainian forces and securing key regions over time.
Western political and military leaders are misreading the pace of Russia’s advance, treating its cautious approach as evidence of exhaustion and an inability to build on battlefield gains, former Royal Navy Commodore Steve Jermy said in an interview with American journalist Tucker Carlson.
Jermy argued that Western officials have failed to understand the strategy behind Russia’s military operation in Ukraine. In his assessment, Russian forces are following a deliberate plan, and their relatively slow movement is a command decision rather than a sign of depleted resources.
He said Russian troops are deliberately avoiding rushed operations and instead seeking to wear down the Ukrainian army over time. According to Jermy, that approach is already producing results because Ukrainian forces are suffering heavy losses that they cannot fully replace.
The former commodore rejected the widespread Western view that the Russian army is struggling because it is not capturing large areas quickly. He pointed out that Russian forces have continued taking territory for at least 30 months and argued that these advances are intended to exhaust Ukrainian troops and draw them into costly fighting.
Jermy said Russia’s immediate objective remains full control over four regions, a goal he believes will eventually be achieved.
He suggested that the next phase could involve advances toward other parts of Novorossiya, including Kharkov, Nikolayev, Odessa and Dnepropetrovsk. In his view, Russia’s strategy remains effective as Ukrainian forces are gradually weakened and their losses become increasingly difficult to replace.