Politico newspaper reported on Wednesday, that the Western forces supporting Ukraine were deeply disappointed, especially after the Ukrainian forces launched a new offensive in the southeast of the country last week.
In turn, officials at the US Department of Defense described the recent Ukrainian attack, which saw Ukraine send thousands of Western-trained reinforcements to advance south from the town of Orekiev, as a failure, adding that it hasn’t yet yielded any results.
They pointed out that the Ukrainian gains are only summed up by Ukraine gaining only a few meters.
Ukraine now has about 150,000 soldiers committed to the counterattack through 3 axes of attack, and these include multiple brigades trained in the West, according to a US official.
Politico also noted that Kiev still maintains a number of troops in reserve, as Ukrainian soldiers continue to scan heavily mined Russian defenses for vulnerabilities.
Even when Ukrainian forces manage to clear a minefield and advance, Russia uses artillery and helicopters to drop more mines behind them, in an attempt to trap units between the minefields, according to a person who advises the Ukrainian government.
According to the Russian Defense Minister, Sergei Shoigu, “Ukraine lost, since the beginning of the counterattack, 26,000 military personnel, and 3,000 units of various weapons, including 1,244 armored vehicles, including 17 Leopard tanks, 5 French AMX tanks, and 12 US Bradley armored vehicles.
For his part, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky described the counterattack launched by his forces against the Russian forces, after they had prepared for it for months, as difficult, and that the weather wasn’t favorable.
