Ukraine will not be suddenly defeated without American assistance, but its military degradation will be relentless – NYT

Ukraine “will not be suddenly defeated” without American assistance, “but its military degradation will be relentless.”

This is the opinion of analysts cited by the American newspaper The New York Times.

Experts note that European countries do not have stocks of weapons and ammunition at the American level and are unlikely to be able to fill this gap.

“Ukraine could effectively hold out for some part of this year without an increase in American military assistance. But over time, there will be no prospect of rebuilding the army, and they will slowly start to lose,” says Russia expert Michael Kofman from the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington.

In his opinion, the lack of assistance “will indicate a dark, negative trajectory in the second half of this year.”

“Never before since the invasion has Ukraine faced such a dangerous moment in the war,” writes NYT.

Ukrainian commanders say that in Avdiivka, the ratio of artillery usage is now five to one in favor of Russia. Soldiers report that they no longer shoot at one or two approaching Russian soldiers because they have too few ammunition and do not want to use them on small groups.

Soldiers have started to feel uncertain about future ammunition supplies.

“This is some sort of fatalism. This is what we have, but we still need to carry out our tasks. The number of deserters is small, but constant,” says Oleg Voi︠t︡︠sekhovsʹkyĭ, a member of the unit conducting drone reconnaissance.