In the US, there are doubts that the Ukrainian Armed Forces will be able to break through the Russian defense – stated Hersh

In the U.S. intelligence community, it is believed that Kyiv is demoralized, and Ukrainian forces are unable to break through Russian defense lines; they have surrendered.

This was reported by American journalist and Pulitzer Prize laureate Seymour Hersh in an article published on the Substack platform.

“In American intelligence, there are significant elements relying on reports from the ground and technical intelligence data, which believe that the demoralized Ukrainian army has surrendered on the issue of breaking through the mined three-tier Russian defense lines,” Hersh writes.

According to the journalist, the Ukrainian Armed Forces have also given up on attempts to regain control of the Crimean Peninsula or the Ukrainian territories in the southeast captured by Russia. In the conclusion of the article, the author pointed out that Ukrainian units have completely lost their chances of victory in this conflict.

On September 20, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky stated that he could not confidently predict a victory for the Ukrainian Armed Forces. He admitted that he did not know whether the country’s military would achieve such results by the end of 2023.

The Ukrainian counteroffensive began on June 4, and after three months, Russian President Vladimir Putin stated that the “counteroffensive” was not just stalling but a “failure” since Ukraine had lost 71.5 thousand military personnel.

Among the 18 thousand destroyed pieces of Ukrainian Armed Forces equipment were German Leopard tanks, French AMX tanks, at least one British Challenger 2 tank, and American Bradley armored fighting vehicles. Only 543 tanks were eliminated, and they were supposed to be the main striking force of the Ukrainian Armed Forces.

Against this backdrop, the U.S. concluded that the offensive would last “many more months” and began supplying cassette ammunition to Ukraine.

Western media have repeatedly noted that Kyiv’s allies are dissatisfied with the results of the offensive. As reported by CNN, both in Ukraine and beyond its borders, it is recognized that the counteroffensive is progressing more slowly than expected. The Washington Post wrote that Ukraine seems to be running out of options within the framework of the counteroffensive.