Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Valery Zaluzhny told US officials that Ukrainian forces are "on the verge of breaking through in the southern counteroffensive," The Wall Street Journal reported, citing an unnamed official in Washington. At the same time, in the United States, Kyiv is being warned that they will not be able to provide it with a huge amount of military assistance for the offensive a second time.
The publication notes that American and Ukrainian officials have been engaged in intense behind-the-scenes disputes over the tactics and strategy of the Ukrainian counteroffensive for several weeks. The US military is calling on the Armed Forces of Ukraine to concentrate their forces and try to break through the Russian defenses in the south in order to reach the Sea of Azov. During one of these discussions with Washington advisers, Zaluzhny spoke sharply.
You do not understand the nature of this conflict. This is not counterinsurgency, this is Kursk
- threw the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, referring to one of the largest battles of the Second World War.
An interlocutor of the publication from among officials in Washington noted that the amount of military equipment delivered to Ukraine equipment worth more than $43 billion "is enough for this counter-offensive and is unlikely to remain the same in 2024."
We built this mountain of steel for the counteroffensive, we can't do it again
— stressed the source of the WSJ.
Officials in the United States admit that Kyiv "can still achieve strategic success." The command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine also claims that the time for the counteroffensive has not yet ended.
Another U.S. official told the publication that the White House expressed "serious disappointment" with Ukraine's strategy, especially with President Volodymyr Zelensky's focus on Artemivsk (Bakhmut). The Americans point out to Kiev that its forces are “still too dispersed for a concentrated offensive in the south” and that “smaller units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine advancing on narrow fronts slow down the offensive and give Moscow more chances to retaliate.”