• Russia mobilized hundreds of thousands of troops to fight in Ukraine and fuel a spring offensive.
• But these new soldiers have been unable to turn Russia's advances into a major success, war experts say.
• Ukraine now appears positioned for its own push, according to the Institute for the Study of War.

Hundreds of thousands of Russian troops called up to fight in Ukraine have been unable to turn Moscow's new offensive into a battlefield success, war experts said in a new analysis. And throwing more soldiers into the fight most likely won't help. 

Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered a partial military mobilization in September 2022 to fight off a personnel shortage, and 300,000 reservists drafted. These soldiers — many of whom were sent into battle poorly equipped and with limited training — have since been committed to Russia's ongoing spring offensive, the Institute for the Study of War (ISW), a Washington-based think tank, wrote in a Sunday assessment.  

But Moscow's offensive is "likely approaching culmination" because advances along several fronts in eastern Ukraine's Donbas region have so far failed to yield more than "incremental tactical gains," the assessment said. ISW noted hostilities around the war-torn city of Bakhmut, where intense fighting has raged for months, and cited Ukrainian military officials in its analysis.