Ukraine begins internal strife, US media reports: counterattack progress "slower than expected" failed | Article | Ukraine
On August 16th, the website of Newsweek published an article titled "Zelensky's Key Counterattack Call May Cause Leadership Splitting" by David Brennan. The article excerpt is as follows:
Ukraine's long-awaited counterattack - so far - has not achieved much, and Zelensky's troops have recaptured small areas of land in the south and east of the country at a high cost. Six weeks after the operation began, Moscow's multi-layered defense network remained unbroken.
Zelensky faces a dilemma: either go all out, risk costly failure, or reduce Ukraine's losses and accept politically destructive failure.
▲ Data image: Ukrainian special forces soldiers undergoing training
Insiders say that the lack of progress has intensified the strategic debate at the highest level of the Ukrainian government, causing some members of the presidential office to stand in opposition to military command.
Some of the former hope to consolidate Kiev's limited success and prepare for Russia's expected autumn and winter offensive. But military personnel, including General Valery Zaluryne, who is the commander-in-chief, hope to continue advancing, and Ukrainian military officials condemn their criticism as stemming from a misunderstanding of impatience.
Zelensky admitted that the long-awaited progress of the counterattack was "slower than expected.". After six weeks of fighting, the Ukrainian army has not yet reached the first line of defense of the so-called "Surovychin Line". The Sulawikin Line is a defense network established since the end of 2022, initially under the command of General Sergei Sulawikin.
The difficulty of the battle has raised concerns in the West. A senior Western diplomat who declined to be named said, "Russians have many lines of defense, and they haven't really crossed the first one yet."
Ukrainian officials have clearly stated that the battlefield conditions are challenging. The military in Kiev is using a large number of new weapons for combat, and they have limited training in operating these weapons. Its attacking forces received a mixed training of NATO theory and Soviet theory, and did not possess the air power required to support more modern combat methods.
But Andrei Zagorodnik, who served as Ukraine's Minister of Defense from 2019 to 2020 and is now an advisor to the Ministry of Defense, said, "There are many misconceptions about this counterattack."
He said, "One of them is that Ukraine is shifting towards a war of attrition and is depleting the energy of the Russians. This is not the case. What Ukraine is currently doing is basically trying to weaken the Russians' self-defense capabilities. This is essentially a long-term preparation for more proactive actions."
Zagorodnuk said, "I think stopping is meaningless."
Zelensky has repeatedly vowed not to waste the lives of Ukrainians. Although the casualties on both sides are still unclear, Kiev has invested heavily in counterattacks.
The military leaders in Kiev have publicly stated that they still have confidence in success. Stopping the counterattack without achieving significant breakthroughs may be seen as a serious failure by Russia and Western partners, deepening concerns that Ukraine's goal of reclaiming all its territory along its 1991 borders is too daunting.
However, if we continue to push forward but still fail to achieve a breakthrough, it may bring the same result and provide Ukraine's critics with an opportunity to portray Zelensky and his team as stubborn and unreliable partners.
Sources close to the Ukrainian government say that Kiev must make it clear that "Ukraine is not an irrational actor.".
