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\n \n Weeks into Ukraine\u2019s highly anticipated counteroffensive, Western officials describe increasingly \u201csobering\u201d assessments about Ukrainian forces\u2019 ability to retake significant territory, four senior US and western officials briefed on the latest intelligence told CNN.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cThey\u2019re still going to see, for the next couple of weeks, if there is a chance of making some progress. But for them to really make progress that would change the balance of this conflict, I think, it\u2019s extremely, highly unlikely,\u201d a senior western diplomat told CNN.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cOur briefings are sobering. We\u2019re reminded of the challenges they face,\u201d said Rep. Mike Quigley, an Illinois Democrat who recently returned from meetings in Europe with US commanders training Ukrainian armored forces. \u201cThis is the most difficult time of the war.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n The primary challenge for Ukrainian forces is the continued difficulty of breaking through Russia\u2019s multi-layered defensive lines in the eastern and southern parts of the country, which are marked by tens of thousands of mines and vast networks of trenches. Ukrainian forces have incurred staggering losses there, leading Ukrainian commanders to hold back some units to regroup and reduce casualties.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cRussians have a number of defensive lines and they [Ukrainian forces] haven\u2019t really gone through the first line,\u201d said a senior Western diplomat. \u201cEven if they would keep on fighting for the next several weeks, if they haven\u2019t been able to make more breakthroughs throughout these last seven, eight weeks, what is the likelihood that they will suddenly, with more depleted forces, make them? Because the conditions are so hard.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n A senior US official said the US recognizes the difficulties Ukrainian forces are facing, though retains hope for renewed progress.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cWe all recognize this is going harder and slower than anyone would like \u2013 including the Ukrainians \u2013 but we still believe there\u2019s time and space for them to be able make progress,\u201d this official said.\n <\/p>\n \n Multiple officials said the approach of fall, when weather and fighting conditions are expected to worsen, gives Ukrainian forces a limited window to push forward.\n <\/p>\n \n In addition, Western officials say the slow progress has exposed the difficulty of transforming Ukrainian forces into combined mechanized fighting units, sometimes with as few as eight weeks of training on western-supplied tanks and other new weapons systems. The lack of progress on the ground is one reason Ukrainian forces have been striking more often inside Russian territory \u201cto try and show Russian vulnerability,\u201d said a senior US military official.\n <\/p>\n \n Ukraine\u2019s armed forces chief, Gen. Valerii Zaluzhnyi, told US Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley that Ukrainian forces are step by step creating conditions for advancing. Zaluzhnyi added that he had told Milley that Ukraine\u2019s defenses were steadfast.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cOur soldiers are doing their best. The enemy is conducting active assault actions in a number of directions, but is not succeeding,\u201d Zaluzhnyi told Milley, according to a read out issued by the Ukrainian government.\n <\/p>\n \n Talking about the situation in the south, where Ukrainian forces have struggled to gain ground, Zaluzhnyi said, \u201cHeavy fighting continues, Ukrainian troops step by step continue to create conditions for advancing. The initiative is on our side.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n These latest assessments represent a marked change from the optimism at the start of the counteroffensive. These officials say those expectations were \u201cunrealistic\u201d and are now contributing to pressure on Ukraine from some in the West to begin peace negotiations, including considering the possibility of territorial concessions.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cPutin is waiting for this. He can sacrifice bodies and buy time,\u201d Quigley said.\n <\/p>\n \n Some officials fear the widening gap between expectations and results will spark a \u201cblame game\u201d among Ukrainian officials and their western supporters, which may create divisions within the alliance which has remained largely intact nearly two years into the war.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cThe problem, of course, here is the prospect of the blame game that the Ukrainians would then blame it on us,\u201d said a senior western diplomat.\n <\/p>\n \n Last month at the Aspen Security Forum, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky pointed to the slow arrival of more advanced weapons systems from the West as reason for Ukrainian forces\u2019 slow progress so far.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cWe did plan to start [the counteroffensive] in spring, but we didn\u2019t,\u201d Zelensky said. \u201cBecause frankly, we have not enough munitions, and armaments, and not enough properly trained brigades. I mean properly trained in these weapons.\u201d\n <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n #Western #allies #receive #increasingly #sobering #updates #Ukraines #counteroffensive #difficult #time #war<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" CNN \u00a0\u2014\u00a0 Weeks into Ukraine\u2019s highly anticipated counteroffensive, Western officials describe increasingly \u201csobering\u201d assessments about Ukrainian forces\u2019 ability to retake significant territory, four senior US and western officials briefed on the latest intelligence told CNN. \u201cThey\u2019re still going to see, for the next couple of weeks, if there is a chance of making some progress….<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3351,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3350","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-trending-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsbuzz24x7.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3350"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsbuzz24x7.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsbuzz24x7.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsbuzz24x7.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsbuzz24x7.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3350"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsbuzz24x7.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3350\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsbuzz24x7.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3351"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsbuzz24x7.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3350"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsbuzz24x7.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3350"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsbuzz24x7.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3350"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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