Book your ticket to happiness with Sun Express Airlines. This is a CBS I of the world. I'm John Bachelor Ukraine conflict. I welcome Colonel Jeff McCausen, the United States Army

retired artillery men, CBS News, visiting Professor Dickinson College, Diamond Six Leadership and Strategy,

returned from Europe, Paris and London.

To comment on the battle space in Ukraine, many headlines these last days in Europe and the

U.S. about a city called Avdivk and the scrambling retreat were told of the

Ukrainian forces overwhelmed by the Russian wave tactics and being outgunned. Jeff, a very good evening to you.

Avdifka was a strong point in the Ukrainian defenses for many years, not just since

22. It was part of the battle front when they were exchanging artillery

shells between 14 and 22. It's lost. What does that mean for the defensive

positions thrown up by Kief? Where are they falling back

too? Good evening to you. Good to you John. Well I would call it for the Russians

an operational or a tactical success but not a strategic success.

We don't see, so far at least, the Russians being able to mount

any kind of exploitation from that success where they have reserve forces sufficient to do that

and it's probably slow right now because it has been a mild winner

and we both know that particular part of Ukraine tends to be very boggi

and therefore very difficult this time a year to conduct large scale offensive operations.

The Ukrainians withdrew.

They made a decision to withdraw.

Obviously withdrawals can be very difficult and there are reports up to a thousand

Ukrainians may have been taken prisoners during that withdrawal.

So far at least based on what I'm reading in terms of further advancement of the line,

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