Washington and its NATO allies have poured billions of dollars of military aid into bolstering the Kiev regime, so high expectations for Ukraine to show battlefield results could "torpedo" a counteroffensive, according to a US media report.
The long-anticipated counterattack by Ukraine’s Armed Forces has been greatly anticipated by the West over the past few months, with speculation rife as to its exact place and time. One thing is certain, however - all eyes are on Kiev to “deliver a quantifiable victory,” the publication highlighted.
By seizing a "key region", for example, Kiev would ostensibly show the West that the vast sums of money it had spent while depleting its own stockpiles had not been in vain.
"There are many in the US and NATO who are concerned this is going to be a forever war, that it will go on for years and the West will continue to pour money into it without much progress," Mark Cancian, a former US Marine Corps colonel, was cited as saying.
A former Australian army general, Mick Ryan, agreed, saying that, "regardless of what happens on the ground, this has to be seen as a success to the Ukrainian people and US and European politicians".
And Ben Hodges, an erstwhile commander of US Army Europe, told the outlet that "monumental pressure" from the West might "screw up" any attempt at a counteroffensive before it got off the ground.
He pointed to how some Ukrainian defense officials, and even the country's president, Volodymyr Zelensky, when interviewed by the US media in early May, appeared to downplay expectations. Zelensky had kept rattling off a list of what Ukraine “didn’t have enough” of for a counterattack, clamoring for armored vehicles, ammunition packages, and more air defense systems. Other recent US media reports have claimed that behind closed doors, some high-ranking officials in Kiev have struck what was described as a “very realistic and very pragmatic” tone, conceding that Ukraine should not be expected to pull some quick impressive success out of the bag.
There are politicians and players who are increasingly eager to bring the Ukraine conflagration to a quick end, Hodges was cited as saying. Referring to sentiment in Washington, he added:
"I think the administration has a lot of people in very high places that are not committed to Ukraine absolutely winning."
He also suggested there were differences of opinion within the American administration regarding the "strategic objective" of supporting Ukraine in the long-term.
The West's puppet regime in its proxy war with Russia appears to be concerned that lack of battlefield advances using the vast amount of donated weaponry will cause its supporters to lose interest in providing an endless supply of aid to Kiev. But as things stand at present, amid speculation about the H-hour, Western countries continue to lavish Kiev with billions of dollars of military aid, which Moscow warns will only prolong the Ukraine conflict.