I read the same thing Smokey did. I think it came from 19forty-five. The link to the article was probably at Bongino Report.
Here is a snippet of the article, I found it:
“Putin Is Not Stupid”: This Expert Spent 182 Days on the Russia-Ukraine Battlefields
Image of Russian TOS Unit. Image Credit: Creative Commons.
American Who Spent 182 Days on the Battlefield Speaks Out on Ukraine and Russia: One US civilian has been to Ukraine and seen the border skirmish between Moscow and Kyiv up close and personal. Policy institute president and defense and national security expert
Dr. Phillip Karber has visited
Ukraine 36 times in the last eight years and has spent a total of 182 days at the front lines of various battlefields observing combat.
1945 caught up with Karber, who heads
the Potomac Foundation, for a wide-ranging, detailed, and insightful interview about the situation in
Ukraine and Russia.
1945 Defense Editor Brent Eastwood conducted the interview.
You have traveled to Ukraine many times over the years after Russia’s annexation of Crimea. Can you tell us the overall state of readiness when it comes to Ukraine’s military?
Considering the terrible shape the
Ukrainian forces were in at the beginning of 2014 after two decades of utter neglect,
their resurrection as a fighting force has been nothing short of miraculous.
At the beginning of the conflict on paper, they had 15 ground force brigades with an authorized strength of 55 maneuver battalions. In reality only 16 of the latter were “ready” (defined as having at least two-thirds of required manpower and operable equipment). Moreover, only 25 percent of the ready battalions were deployed on the east side of the Dniepr River opposite Russia (and two of those were lost with the occupation of Crimea).
Neither Western analysts nor Russian planners expected the Ukrainian Army to be able to fight for more than several days. But they mobilized, redeployed their forces to the east, repaired and upgraded old weaponry, and have been fighting for eight years. They have lost some battles and won some battles, but in the process inflicted as many casualties as they have suffered.
Today, Ukraine fields the strongest active Army in Europe — it is larger, more ready with more combat experience than the armies of the last ten countries to join NATO — combined.
The active force equals 40 Battalion Tactical Groups (BTGs), backed up by 100,000 reservists with experience at the front, and units at every level led by a new generation of young aggressive officers who have fought the Russians, know their weakness and are not afraid to exploit them.
Ironically, in terms of stabilizing Eastern Europe, providing a bulwark to Russian revanchism, and significantly improving the defense of Romania,
Poland, and the Baltics — NATO would gain more from having Ukraine on its side than Ukraine would get from being in NATO.
We do not appreciate their contribution now, but we will miss them
when they are gone.
There is a common line of thinking in Washington that Kyiv would be beaten very quickly by Moscow. What is your take?
If the Washington, DC “desk-commandos” would get off their derrières and go to the front, they would get a more realistic perspective.
The Ukrainians can hold the current 500km line of engagement until the cows come home — in terms of the area covering the Donbas front against the 1st Donetsk and 2nd Luhansk proxy Corps and the causeways from Crimea against its 22nd Corps. And, in defending those prepared positions, they will stack Russian body bags like cordwood.
More at link:
"Putin Is Not Stupid": This Expert Spent 182 Days on the Russia-Ukraine Battlefields - 19FortyFive
I don't know if the guy is right or not, just read his article. All sides in this are saying they are the big bad wolf.