Chair of the Joint Chiefs General Mark Milley has been one of the more honest, outspoken members of the Biden administration about the 17 month-long war in Ukraine. Speaking to the National Press Club last week, Milley laid it all out, yet again, this time about the Ukrainian army’s ongoing counteroffensive against the heavily fortified Russian defenses in the eastern and southern parts of the country. Anybody who expected a rapid Ukrainian victory, the general insinuated, was kidding themselves. “It’s going to be very long, and it’s going to be very, very bloody. And no-one should have any illusions about any of that,” he said.
Milley isn’t wrong. While the Ukrainian forces have made some headway since the counteroffensive began in early June, the progress has been grueling. According to Ukrainian deputy defense minister Hanna Maliar, Kyiv has retaken about 50 square miles of land in the counteroffensive’s first month. Those gains have come at a heavy cost to equipment and personnel, although it’s impossible to confirm how many Ukrainian troop have been killed and how much Western-supplied weapons systems have been destroyed during the course of the fighting.
What is possible, however, is to gauge U.S. reactions to the counteroffensive. Notwithstanding frustration from Ukraine’s top military officer, Valery Zaluzhny, about all the Monday morning quarterbacking of Ukraine’s operations thus far, U.S. officials monitoring the conflict (or at least those willing to speak to the media anonymously) expressed concerns about the pace of the Ukrainian drive and the extent of Russian resistance. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky stated that, ideally, more progress would be made on a more rapid timetable.
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