Western Officials Blame Ukraine’s Tactics for Stalled Counteroffensive

Russia’s military estimates that Ukraine has lost some 26,000 troops and 3,000 pieces of military equipment since launching its counteroffensive in June. This week, US and European officials privately estimated that Kiev may have lost “up to 20 percent” of the equipment it deployed during the first two weeks of the campaign.

The snail’s pace at which Ukraine’s counteroffensive is progressing is frustrating some US and NATO officials, who are asking questions about why Kiev has shifted tactics toward trying to wear down Russian forces through “attrition” using artillery and drones instead of attempting more speedy breakthroughs, US media have reported, citing anonymous officials familiar with the situation.

Pointing to the advanced mine-clearing equipment that NATO has provided Kiev, and the training of Ukrainian troops in "integrated offensive maneuvers" by alliance members, an anonymous US official insisted that "applying all those capabilities in a way that enables them to breach those obstacles [i.e. Russian defensive lines, ed.], but do[ing] it quickly, is paramount."

A second US official complained that Ukraine’s attrition tactics are resulting in Kiev using up its limited artillery, instead of saving it for potentially more important operations "down the road."

Ukrainian officials fired back, pointing to the speed at which Russian forces have been able to respond to Ukraine’s armored thrusts, with Russian missiles and artillery fire raining down on armored vehicles and mine-clearing equipment in motion. Some also grumbled openly that their Western sponsors would never attempt such a massive offensive without air support, which Ukraine doesn’t have.

"So, to say that it is slow or too fast is at least ridiculous to hear from those who have no idea what it is. They do not know what it is. And God forbid they should ever experience it," Ukrainian Armed Forces Commander-in-Chief Valerii Zaluzhnyi said.

Washington balked at these concerns, suggesting that NATO jets would be of limited help to Kiev, given Russia’s overwhelming air defense capabilities designed precisely to target these sorts of aircraft. "It’s just a matter of continuing to apply pressure in a combined-arms approach," the US official said.

This "combined-arms approach" has already cost Ukrainian forces over 26,000 lives since June 4, on top of hundreds of thousands more since February of 2022, when the long-running Donbass crisis escalated into a NATO-Russia proxy war.

A senior NATO official sought to deflect some of the blame from Ukraine over the stalling of the counteroffensive onto the alliance’s shoulders, saying the plodding pace at which the bloc has sent arms to Kiev is partly responsible for the state of the offensive.

“It’s very much in the hands of the West how far [the Ukrainians] advance,” the official said. “The West is doing all the right things, just six months late.”

A second NATO official stressed that the “reality” is that Russia has “more resources broadly speaking, and has more people, and that’s why” rapid success in Kiev’s offensive is “so urgent.”

US Joint Staff Director of Operations Douglas Sims addressed growing concerns over Kiev’s counteroffensive strategy last week, telling reporters that even if Ukrainian forces advance just “hundreds of meters a day,” they’re “doing that at great cost in terms of effort.”

“This is hard warfare; it’s in really tough terrain; it’s under fire, and really, when you consider all of that, it’s pretty remarkable,” Sims assured.

Moscow, which recently confirmed the existence of a ready peace plan with Kiev last spring which was sabotaged at the last minute by Ukraine’s US and UK sponsors, has lamented the West’s apparent willingness to fight Russia “to the last Ukrainian” to try to fulfill Washington’s geopolitical agenda of “weakening Russia.”