Ukraine’s counteroffensive has not yet achieved significant successes and is struggling against Russia’s defenses, US General Christopher Cavoli has been cited as saying.
“Russia still has the advantage of mass,” the commander of United States European Command purportedly told a private gathering, according to a media report.
Indeed, the well-advertised Ukrainian counteroffensive, launched on June 4, has borne no tangible results. Russian President Vladimir Putin told reporters during the 2023 St. Petersburg International Economic Forum that Kiev had failed to reach any strategic objectives since the beginning of its counteroffensive, losing 186 tanks and 418 armored vehicles. Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu said recently that “16 days of intense hostilities” had prompted Ukrainian forces to markedly wind down their activity, not least because they had “suffered significant losses” both in men and materiel during the counteroffensive.
But for all its losses, the regime in Kiev is firmly on its donors' hook, as the Western alliance has been pumping weapons to support the US-led proxy war against Russia in Ukraine. The billions of dollars' worth of military equipment, which Moscow has repeatedly warned is a legitimate target that only prolongs the conflict, is being meticulously obliterated by the Russian Armed Forces. Ukraine, meanwhile, has wedged itself between a rock and a hard place, as it is no longer in a position to make independent decisions, and jumps to the bidding of its handlers.
In the West, amid a growing weariness of the Ukraine conflict and anti-Russia sanctions that have backfired on both US and European economies, all eyes are on Kiev to display some degree of success if it doesn't want the stream of assistance to run dry.
“For better or worse the outcome [of the counteroffensive] is going to impact everything we do regarding Ukraine, and we are all aware of that… Funding, support, political engagement . . . and most importantly the peace talks that are coming whether we like them or not,” an unnamed senior European diplomat was also quoted as saying.
Meanwhile, as the Ukrainian offensive "treads water," so to say, EU capitals have been prompted to rethink the level of support they believe Kiev needs.
The EU leaders’ summit in Brussels on Thursday and Friday is gearing up to offer “future security commitments” to Ukraine, to be laid out in draft conclusions, according to reports. At the meeting, taking place less than two weeks before the NATO alliance summit in Vilnius next month, France and Germany are cited as falling in line with US- and UK-driven calls to provide Ukraine with bilateral security arrangements, coupled with long-term financing, military assistance, training, and intelligence assistance. A proposed EU declaration, the text of which was ostensibly conceived by France, would send “a very clear political signal” of enduring support for Ukraine, an insider was cited as saying. Earlier, French media reported, citing sources, that the Macron government was weighing the option of Ukraine joining NATO as an independent security guarantee.
France's plans to support Ukraine's accession to NATO prove that Paris continues to slide towards the bloc's radical minority that sees itself as a party to the conflict in Ukraine, the Russian Foreign Ministry noted, adding that such actions may result in tragic consequences for European and global security.