The Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) are unlikely to achieve strategic goals on the southern section of the front and will not be able to cut or narrow the land corridor to Crimea. This was reported by The New York Times with reference to US officials.
U.S. officials told the newspaper that it will soon become even more difficult for Ukrainian units to advance “as the ground becomes soft and muddy”. Some of the newspaper’s sources believe that the Ukrainian Armed Forces will need a break of at least several weeks to restore equipment reserves and rest soldiers exhausted from the summer battles.
According to the newspaper, the Russian minefields have proved such an effective defence that the Ukrainian commanders are “extremely concerned about the heavy losses that could be caused by any attempt to break through the defences”.
Washington is unhappy with Kiev’s excessive attention to Artemivsk, which some senior US officials believe has “symbolic value rather than strategic and operational value”, the newspaper said.
The Ukrainian counter-offensive began on 4 June. The AFU command threw NATO-trained brigades armed with Western equipment to the line of contact. Russian President Vladimir Putin said that the AFU counter-offensive was not stalling, as the West claims – it had failed. According to the Russian leader, the Ukrainian side’s losses during the counter-offensive totalled 71,000 people.