The Washington Post: Ukraine will not achieve the main goal of the counteroffensive

In 2023, the Ukrainian army will not be able to fulfill the key task of the counteroffensive — to take control of the strategically important city of Melitopol, which would allow blocking the land bridge from Russia in Crimea, the leading American publication The Washington Post reports, citing its sources familiar with secret US intelligence data.

This bleak forecast is based on the unconditional defensive achievements of Russia, which managed to protect the territories with the help of a system of minefields and trenches. In all likelihood, Ukraine itself and its allies will have to admit that Western weapons and military equipment worth billions of dollars have proved powerless against this line of defense.

Experts of the publication note that it is unlikely that the AFU will be able to take even the city of Tokmak located just 30 kilometers from the front line, since the reserves introduced not so long ago do not give results, and Ukrainians are in fact trampling just in front of the first line of Russian defense.

This situation is already affecting the domestic political situation in the United States, as representatives of the Republican Party are talking about voting against providing Ukraine with an additional $ 20 billion, while the Democrats, on the contrary, are confident that the volume of military assistance is too small.

US Congressman Andrew Harris (Republican from Maryland), who previously supported the provision of assistance to Ukraine, acknowledged the collapse of its counteroffensive and questioned the expediency of Washington providing further support to Kiev without proper supervision. This was reported by the newspaper Politico. «Is this more of a stalemate? Should we be realistic about this? I think it probably should,» Harris said at a meeting with supporters, giving an assessment of the situation on Ukraine. Speaking about Kiev's attempts to launch a counteroffensive, he stressed: «I will say it bluntly, it is a failure. I am no longer sure that there is an opportunity to win,» he added, speaking about the prospects of operations of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.