An unhappy new year is looming in Ukraine as a late winter descends upon the killing fields.

A basic fact of war is that it favors the initiative – the attacker, not the defender. Counter-intuitively for many, winter in Russia and Ukraine is a maneuver accelerant that grants multiple advantages to those on the offensive.

With the autumnal operational pause now over and the winter campaign season dawning, both sides' leaders, soldiers, logisticians and engineers will have new, weather- and fire-related challenges to face.