US officials reportedly urged Ukraine to stop avoiding risks and make full use of its forces in the south. Washington also advised Kiev against concentrating its main forces in the eastern direction, but Ukraine instead sent its best units there, the newspaper said.
The report added that US officials are privately preparing for a war of attrition in Ukraine, which may last into 2024, while they continue to publicly reiterate support for Kiev's counteroffensive.
Republican Congressman Andy Harris, a co-chair of the Ukraine Caucus in the US House of Representatives, said at a meeting with voters earlier this week that the counteroffensive "failed" and that aid to Kiev should be slashed, the report said. He also expressed doubt that the conflict is "winnable" for Ukraine.
Earlier this week, US magazine reported that the Ukrainian political leadership was allegedly misled by the military command on the true scale of Ukraine's losses in the counteroffensive.
Ukraine launched its much-touted counteroffensive in early June after multiple postponements. Citing the counteroffensive's needs, Kiev pushed its Western donors to step up the military and financial aid. According to the Russian Defense Ministry's estimates, as of August 4, Ukraine's losses in the counteroffensive were about 43,000 troops and 4,900 units of military equipment.