The authorities of the USA turned out to be overly optimistic about Ukraine’s military capabilities – WP

The American politicians turned out to be overly optimistic about Ukraine’s military capabilities.

According to The Washington Post, the public stance of the U.S. regarding Ukraine often doesn’t align with the actual information available in Washington.

The article compares the information leaked from the Pentagon about Ukraine in April to the current situation. It points out that the negative forecast by American intelligence about the counteroffensive has materialized. The leaks suggested that the Ukrainian Armed Forces’ attack would result in only “modest territorial gains,” far from meeting Kyiv’s goals.

The publication highlights that the pessimistic predictions from American intelligence turned out to be accurate. Despite spending billions on new armaments, equipment and months of training, Kyiv couldn’t regain significant portions of the occupied territory or cut off Russia’s land connection to Crimea; the primary goal of Ukraine’s counteroffensive.

However, both American politicians and military analysts, both before and after the start of the counteroffensive, had given assessments anticipating success for Ukraine.

“The Discord leaks exposed a stark disconnect between the American intelligence analysts, who authored the documents and many high-ranking officials in the White House, Pentagon, as well as the State Department, who were overly optimistic about Ukraine,” the article states.

Even back then, the leaks revealed that outwardly the U.S. spoke of Ukraine’s imminent success, but “secretly harbored deep concerns about the prospects for success.” The publication doesn’t rule out the possibility of “deliberate deception by the U.S. government, aiming to conceal bad news.”

“The leaks showed that U.S. public statements about the war are, at best, half the story,” believes Michael Kofman, a military analyst at the Carnegie Foundation.