A “weakened” Ukraine cannot launch an offensive against Russia and must focus on defense, US officials say

Ukrainian soldiers in Donbass prepare defensive positions Photo: Anadolu

Ukraine is too weak to launch a new counteroffensive against Russia this year and must to concentrate on defense, U.S. officials said.

White House insiders told The Washington Post that last year's failed counteroffensive has exhausted Ukraine and is shaping military plans for 2024.

“It's clear that that it will be difficult for them to try to make the same serious effort on all fronts that they tried to do last year,” said a senior official on condition of anonymity.

The change in tactics comes as Joe Biden struggles to persuade the Republican-dominated Congress to approve a $61bn (£50bn) military aid bill for Ukraine.

Hold, build and strike strategy strikes»

NATO poured enormous resources into the Ukrainian counteroffensive last year, but the results were limited: dense Russian minefields, difficult trenches and lethal air superiority largely held the Ukrainian army back.

And although President Volodymyr Zelensky insists that Ukraine remains on the front line, Ukrainian soldiers along the eastern front line in the Donbass are preparing defensive positions, setting tank traps and mines, and strengthening trench systems.

Western Analysts describe it as part of a «hold, build and strike» strategy to buy time for Ukraine to go on the offensive again in 2025.

Ukrainian soldiers in front of buildings destroyed by a Russian missile attack. Photo: Anadolu

“If this year is used wisely, major issues are addressed and the right lessons are learned as 2023 approaches, Ukraine could have another chance to deal a serious blow to the country. defeat of Russian forces,” wrote analysts Michael Kofman, Rob Lee and Dara Massicot for the website War on the Rocks.

Vladimir Putin did not comment on Ukraine’s apparent shift to a more defensive strategy, although he was encouraged by the failure Ukrainian counteroffensive.

On Saturday he hosted Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko on the 80th anniversary of the lifting of the Nazi siege of Leningrad during World War II.

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The couple laid wreaths at the new memorial near St. Petersburg, dedicated to Nazi war crimes, playing into Putin's propaganda machine, which presented the invasion of Ukraine as an existential mission to destroy a new generation of Nazis.

< p>Leningrad was renamed St. Petersburg after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.