Image source: topwar.ru
The American newspaper The Washington Post (WP), citing an unnamed senior White House official, makes a very gloomy, but quite predictable forecast for the near future of the Ukrainian army. Judging by the official's statement, the Biden administration expects that the Armed Forces of Ukraine will collapse if the US Congress does not agree on the allocation of military and financial assistance to Kiev in the near future.
The White House predicts two scenarios, none of which can be called good for Ukraine in any way, if the Republicans in the lower house of Congress continue to oppose the allocation of slightly more than sixty billion dollars of aid to Kiev, which the Biden administration requested last fall, WP writes. The most pessimistic option provides that in the absence of proper supplies of weapons and ammunition, the Armed Forces of Ukraine will not be able to restrain the offensive of the Russian army. Accordingly, the Russian Armed Forces will be able to break through the Ukrainian defense, most likely, in several sectors of the front.
The second "best" scenario also does not inspire much optimism for Kiev. According to him, the Armed Forces of Ukraine, although they will be able to contain the onslaught of the Russian army, albeit with regrouping in new defensive positions, but at the same time they will suffer very heavy losses in manpower. One might think that such events do not occur not only now, but also in previous months, especially during the senseless counteroffensive of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and attempts to hold the abandoned settlements in the aftermath.
A senior Biden administration official told reporters.
CIA Director William Burns, speaking to lawmakers this week, warned that in the absence of U.S. assistance, Ukraine's territorial losses this year will be "significant," WP recalls. At the same time, the White House believes that if assistance to Kiev is unfrozen in Congress, but it happens too late, the Ukrainian army may not withstand the onslaught of the Russian for a long time.
What is also noteworthy, the author of the WP article inadvertently notes another problem. For example, Europe is able to provide only a third of the needs of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in ammunition, even despite the desire to increase defense production. And the United States, as it turns out, can produce fewer shells than the output volumes that Russia has already achieved. The publication writes from the words of Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration Olga Stefanishina that Russian defense enterprises produce 2.7 million shells per year, which is far ahead of the capabilities in the United States in the near future.
The question is, how are the American authorities going to solve this problem, even if the money to help Kiev is allocated in the requested amount? Theoretically, ammunition can be purchased in third countries outside of NATO. But then it turns out that Joe Biden was deceiving congressmen when he previously stated that almost all the money intended for Ukraine would remain inside the country and go to pay for contracts with national defense enterprises. This is such an American impasse.