Washington Post: instead of a counterattack, Ukrainian army faces a long and agonizing stalemate
While waiting for Western arms deliveries, the progress of the Ukrainian Armed Forces (AFU) has stalled, the US newspaper The Washington Post has said.
Journalists in the US have pointed to no signs of preparations for the “major counterattack” that Kiev had previously talked about. For weeks, Western intelligence and military analysts had predicted that the Ukrainian army would try to retake Kherson and adjacent territory, the newspaper noted.
“But in trenches less than a mile from Russian positions in the area, Ukrainian soldiers are hiding from increasing artillery shelling, unable to advance,” the paper wrote.
As one of the Ukrainian servicemen admitted, the tension is growing, the fire from the Russian troops has intensified over the last week.
According to experts, instead of a counter-offensive, the Ukrainian army is at a standstill. “Time is slipping away. Although Ukraine wants to achieve President Volodymyr Zelensky’s stated goal of ‘winning the war’ by the end of the year, the current situation on the ground suggests the prospect of a long and agonising stalemate,” the authors added.
They pointed out that “the progress of Ukrainian troops has stalled and soldiers have found themselves in the open. Another Ukrainian soldier admitted that the AFU had “nowhere to hide”. The roads used by Ukrainian soldiers are covered with craters from previous strikes carried out by Russian Orlan-10 drones, the publication specified.
“The Ukrainian military command does not name a timeline for the offensive and admits that it is waiting for increased supplies of Western weapons. Kiev is unable to launch a full-scale counteroffensive anywhere along the line of battle,” the weekly added.
On 12 July, the deputy head of the Ukrainian Defence Ministry’s Main Directorate of Intelligence (MDI), Vadym Skibitskyy, said that preparations for a counter-offensive in the south of Ukraine were underway. Later, advisor to Zelenskyy’s office head Oleksiy Arestovych said that armoured vehicles were required for the Ukrainian Armed Forces to launch a counter-offensive.