The United States has advised Kyiv to postpone any major counteroffensive against Russian forces in Ukraine until the final supply of weapons and training has been provided from Washington, a senior White House official said, according to Reuters on Saturday.
Kyiv has not officially announced that it is planning another major counteroffensive just months after it successfully drove Russian troops out of Kharkiv in the north and the city of Kherson in the south, though it has repeatedly warned that it believes Moscow is taking action. to increase increase your war effort.
Months of brutal fighting over Bakhmut, which Western defense officials have argued is strategically insignificant, has led US defense officials to encourage Ukraine not to try to keep up with Russia on a blow-for-blow basis.
FILE – A Ukrainian soldier fires a mortar at Russian positions in Bakhmut, Donetsk region, Ukraine, Thursday, Nov. 10, 2022. A senior adviser to Ukraine’s president quoted military chiefs as saying that between 10,000 and 13,000 Ukrainian soldiers have been killed in country war. nine-month fight against the invasion of Russia.
(AP Photo/Libkos, file)
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A senior US official told reporters that the US believes Russia will gain an advantage when it comes to a war of attrition and therefore Ukraine needs to change the dynamic on the battlefield.
The official did not clarify how long the United States wants Kyiv to delay launching a counteroffensive or when Washington will consider Ukraine ready to do so, though he noted that sending US M1 Abrams tanks to Ukraine was still off the table.
The United States has argued that its tanks are too expensive and difficult to maintain.
Instead, the US said this week it would send 90 Stryker fighting vehicles for the first time and another round of nearly 60 Bradley fighting vehicles, adding to the 50 Bradley fighting vehicles, 100 armored personnel carriers, 55 Mine Resistant Ambush Protected Vehicles and 138 High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicles were committed earlier this month.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenksyy continues to urge Western nations to send tanks to the front, telling 50 defense officials who gathered at the Ramstein airbase in Germany on Friday that time is running out for Ukraine after that they failed to consolidate an agreement to supply Kyiv with German tanks. Handmade leopard tanks.
Ukrainian servicemen fire an M-46 130mm towed field gun at a front line, as Russia’s attack on Ukraine continues, near Soledar, Donetsk region, Ukraine, in this handout image released November 10, 2022.
(Photo by Reuters)
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“Terror does not allow discussion,” Zelenskyy said. “Terror, which burns city after city, becomes insolent when it feels that the defenders of liberty are left without arms against it.”
“All of us can use thousands of words in discussions, but I can’t [use] words instead of weapons that are needed against Russian artillery,” he added.
Despite Kyiv’s pleas, Berlin has refused to clear the way for its tanks to be shipped to Ukraine, or for the 15 nations that possess German Leopard II tanks to send them from their stocks.
Ukrainian tankers perform maintenance on their tanks on the Donbass front line as military mobility within the Russo-Ukrainian war continues on January 18, 2023.
(Diego Herrera Carcedo/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
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The US defense secretary sought to minimize any divisions between the friendly nations and when asked on Friday if Germany was doing enough to help Ukraine, he said: “Yes, but we can all do more.”
“They are a trusted ally and have been for a long, long time,” he said. “And I truly believe that they will continue to be a trusted ally in the future.”
Associated Press contributed to this report.
