[Goose]

A couple days ago Zelensky said they are disbanding/stopping formation of many of these 150-units, and instead sending troops to already established brigades. A good move, probably a bit late but still positive.

The name of the game now is can Ukraine maintain infantry staffing to defend the front for long enough for their long range drone strikes to have big enough economic consequences for Russia that they give up. Russia already doesn't seem to have a great answer for them and Ukrainian drone efforts for longer range drones are ramping up. They have been hitting major oil facilities on an almost daily basis recently.

Agree with both your points. IMO the Ukrainian long-range drone effort is probably the most strategically effective card they have to play. Russia SHOULD be capable of interdicting these drones. In theory they can do what Israel and the US/etc. did to the Iranian attempts against Israel. Ukraine doesn't have a ballistic missile augment to complicate the issue, leaving Russia with a simpler problem. Russia could use its point defense missiles to defeat ballistic missiles (if they existed) and the VKS to defeat the drones. However,  so far Russia hasn't deployed the VKS to take down these drones.

Russia is repeatedly reporting shooting down 100+ drones in conjunction with these recent Ukrainian strikes on refineries. Ukraine is saying things like "The refinery was attacked by 8 drones" or similar. IMO some parts of the Russian forces are trying to make it look like they are actually mounting an effective defense. They are making up numbers. Ukraine is using a number of drones that is adequate to overcome the point defense systems Russia has deployed to defend the important targets. No reason to use any more. It is also good to see Ukraine repeatedly attack the same  targets/class of targets repeatedly. This approach has been shown to be the only effective way to make such offensives work.

[Goose]

A couple days ago Zelensky said they are disbanding/stopping formation of many of these 150-units, and instead sending troops to already established brigades. A good move, probably a bit late but still positive.

The name of the game now is can Ukraine maintain infantry staffing to defend the front for long enough for their long range drone strikes to have big enough economic consequences for Russia that they give up. Russia already doesn't seem to have a great answer for them and Ukrainian drone efforts for longer range drones are ramping up. They have been hitting major oil facilities on an almost daily basis recently.

Agree with both your points. IMO the Ukrainian long-range drone effort is probably the most strategically effective card they have to play. Russia SHOULD be capable of interdicting these drones. In theory they can do what Israel and the US/etc. did to the Iranian attempts against Israel. Ukraine doesn't have a ballistic missile augment to complicate the issue, leaving Russia with a simpler problem. Russia could use its point defense missiles to defeat ballistic missiles (if they existed) and the VKS to defeat the drones. However,  so far Russia hasn't deployed the VKS to take down these drones.

Russia is repeatedly reporting shooting down 100+ drones in conjunction with these recent Ukrainian strikes on refineries. Ukraine is saying things like "The refinery was attacked by 8 drones" or similar. IMO some parts of the Russian forces are trying to make it look like they are actually mounting an effective defense. They are making up numbers. Ukraine is using a number of drones that is adequate to overcome the point defense systems Russia has deployed to defend the important targets. No reason to use any more. It is also good to see Ukraine repeatedly attack the same  targets/class of targets repeatedly. This approach has been shown to be the only effective way to make such offensives work.