Ukraine’s counter-offensive against Russia is far from a failure, but the war ahead will be long and bloody, according to the senior US general on Tuesday, July 18, 2023, despite the fact that casualties on both sides are mounting and the front lines have shifted just incrementally.
The US and its allies have spent months constructing a “mountain of steel” of equipment in Ukraine and training Ukrainian forces in combined arms techniques to assist Kyiv in breaching tough Russian defenses during its counter-offensive.
Read More About Russia Ukrain Crisis: counter-offensive was a failure
Asked whether the counter-offensive was a failure, at least so far, General Mark Milley, chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said: “It is far from a failure. I think that it’s way too early to make that kind of call.
“I think there’s a lot of fighting left to go and I’ll stay with what we said before: This is going to be long. It’s going be hard. It’s going to be bloody,” Gen. Milley told reporters.
Since Ukraine began its counteroffensive last month, Kyiv has recaptured some villages in the south and territory around the ruined city of Bakhmut in the east, but has yet to attempt a major breakthrough across heavily defended Russian lines.
Kyiv says it is deliberately advancing slowly to avoid high casualties on fortified defensive lines strewn with landmines, and is focused for now on degrading Russia’s logistics and command. Moscow says the Ukrainian counteroffensive has failed.
Six weeks since Ukraine launched a counteroffensive in the east and south, Russia is mounting a ground offensive of its own in the northeast.
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