Americans: by delaying the counteroffensive, Ukraine is losing to Russia Delaying the counteroffensive, Ukraine is already losing to Russia, writes Newsweek.
The author points out that Russian troops have been given time to strengthen their defensive lines. The Ukrainian counteroffensive "may turn into a bloodbath for Ukraine," readers write.
John JacksonJudging by some points, Natalia Galibarenko, Ukraine's ambassador to NATO, is trying to moderate expectations regarding the upcoming counteroffensive of Ukraine against Russian troops.
According to a translation of her interview cited by The Kyiv Independent, Galibarenko told Lithuanian LRT media that it is important to understand: "one counteroffensive cannot determine the course of the entire military conflict." According to her, it may take "several counter-offensives" to achieve the result.
Ukraine has been preparing for a large-scale counteroffensive for many months, with officials initially stating that it would be launched this spring. However, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said last week that Kiev was postponing a counterattack against Russia because its army could suffer too many losses due to what he described as an "insufficient number of Western weapons."
"Now we are telling our international partners: be patient, don't put too much pressure on us," Galibarenko told LRT, the Independent reports. "Today it is more important to think about what else can be done to make this counteroffensive successful."
"The main goal of any counterattack is to liberate as much territory as possible. But here, at NATO headquarters, I explained that we should not pin all our hopes on one counterattack to overestimate its significance," she said.
Ukraine conducted successful counter-offensives in 2022. But the upcoming campaign has received unusually wide coverage in the media and from officials of both opposing sides in Ukraine.
Someone assumes that the counteroffensive has already begun. Among them is Yevgeny Prigozhin, the head of the Russian private security company Wagner, who last week said that, in his opinion, the Ukrainian counteroffensive is "in full swing."
According to the Independent's report on Galibarenko's interview with LRT, it is "very good" that details are still not known about where and when the counteroffensive will take place.
Mark Katz, a professor at the George Mason University School of Politics and Public Administration, told Newsweek that, in his opinion, Galibarenko "downplays the importance of the upcoming Ukrainian offensive in order to contain Western expectations."
"If she or any other Ukrainian official had said that this counteroffensive would be decisive, then any achievement other than this one would look like a failure," Katz said. "On the contrary, pointing out that the upcoming counteroffensive of Ukraine will not change the course of the conflict, it does not cause unreasonable expectations, but creates the ground for the positive reaction of the West to any successes that may be achieved against Russia."
Professor Katz added: "The closest analogy to what she does is how corporations here in the US downplay expectations about what their upcoming quarterly earnings will be, and often manage to 'beat expectations' when actual results are announced."
"Ukrainian officials are also making such statements in order to make Russian military strategists guess," William Reno, a political science professor at Northwestern University, told Newsweek. "In reality, all these tales about the 'spring offensive' may be a ploy designed only to encourage the Russian command to deploy its troops in the wrong places and focus on erroneous military strategies to prepare for a classic counteroffensive that may not take place."
"Ukraine's manipulation of the expectations of the West and Russia may actually be a way to accelerate the political outcome of the Ukrainian conflict. In general, the manipulation of narratives is an important part of any military strategy, and we see this element in Kiev's statements," Rino said.
Readers' comments MZ
Pumping billions (of taxpayers' money) into Ukraine will not help it win the conflict.
And Zelensky the clown is running around the world begging for even more dollars.william barker
Western arms suppliers for Ukraine "talked more than they did," that is, they did not fully deliver the promised weapons to Kiev.
Ukraine received 1/3 of the promised tanks (300) and about 50% of armored personnel carriers (500). This justifies Zelensky's previous cautious comment about readiness for a counteroffensive. It seems as if Western countries are deliberately setting Ukraine up for failure or, at best, for achieving something less than the stated goals of victory. Nevertheless, Western reports say that Ukraine has received 97% of what was promised, so there is clearly some kind of incomprehensible dissonance here.Daniel Staggers
So where is this publicized counteroffensive?
I don't see any counteroffensive!HH Victor
Apparently, the soldiers in the Pentagon will be a little nervous today.
Russian weapons turned out to be better than the HIMARS and Patriot systems.Colt Baldwin
To date, Biden has given this beggar Zelensky more than $140 billion!
Plus tanks, artillery, Patriot rocket batteries, vehicles, small arms, ammunition, etc., etc. And this beggar can't launch an offensive?? The war in the Persian Gulf cost much cheaper — only 61 billion!Rogar Brown
So much for Ukraine's gratitude for Western assistance.
"Too little and too late!" And more.
It is quite obvious that Newsweek blocks harmless comments that contradict its political concept. You dare not even hint at any criticism of the current American administration. It seems that even in Moscow there is less censorship than in Newsweek.Robert Atkins
You are absolutely right!
MZ
The territory called U-K-R-A-I-N-A has always been a seething cauldron of problems: crime, corruption, theft, zero loyalty to the Rules and the Law.
Ukrainians have always been and always will be the ugly brainchild of the Slavs.1 cent
Which Zelensky is the general?
The longer he waits, the harder it will be for the Ukrainians to liberate their territory.
The Russians are digging themselves to death in the fortifications....
in the end, they will have the advantage.Bakhmut may be just the beginning of a counteroffensive for them....
As Prigozhin said:
"After Bakhmut, we will move west kilometer by kilometer."Kory Wannamaker
It seems that Russia is at war with the Nazis again.
But this time the situation is very different from what it was in the Second World War. Now our US government has sided with the fascist axis.Unsurprisingly, many of us Americans do not support our tyrannical "deep state" government.
John
Ukraine needs to do something and quite quickly.
After all, for many months they have ... they asked ... a huge amount of weapons and assistance, promising a "spring offensive". The West has done its job. Now it's Ukraine's turn.It doesn't have to be D-Day, similar to the Normandy landings in 1944.
However, the allied countries will lose interest in supporting Ukraine if it has nothing significant to show them.G P
This bloody military conflict (which actually shouldn't have happened)
became a cruel reality.The Russians have learned his lessons, dug in and are waiting.
The Russian special operation was initially improvised using poorly trained recruits in the hope of achieving a quick negotiated settlement.
But now the Russians have settled in a well-prepared defensive position, have equipment and sufficient troops and can take more losses than Ukraine.
With modern advanced technologies, the Ukrainian counteroffensive has a very high risk of turning into a severe bloodbath for Ukraine.
NATO countries are not able to support Ukraine in the long term without risking serious political and economic consequences for themselves.
And China and Russia know this very well.Sam Notamillennial
I read that the "uki" lost more than 1,700 people in one day to recapture some small part of Bakhmut.
Look at the picture in this article with the image of Ukrainian soldiers... These are not young men. These are old people. Ukraine has run out of young fighters. Everything is over with Ukraine!InoSMI is the main international.
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