In these documents that appeared on the internet and revealed by the American press, the American intelligence services question the ability of the Ukrainian army to carry out the counter-offensive announced and prepared for months.
Washington wants to reassure Ukraine about the strength of its alliance and its support after the leak of secret documents rather embarrassing for the United States. Since the disclosure of secret documents revealing once again the extent of American espionage, including towards its allies, American officials have been working to reassure their interlocutors, including Kiev.
It was first Anthony Blinken, the head of American diplomacy, who picked up his phone to talk about it with his Ukrainian counterpart Dmytro Kouleba, and to assure him of his country’s unwavering support. It was also the American Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin who spoke with his Ukrainian counterpart Oleksiï Reznikov, declaring following this interview that the Ukrainians had according to him “ the abilities they need to continue to be successful »
In the leaked Pentagon documents, the American services do not hide their doubts and concerns about the military capabilities of the Ukrainians, not to defend themselves as they have been doing successfully for a year, but to carry out this famous counter-offensive which should enable them to retake territory from the Russians, either in the east or in the south of the country.
Insufficient training, lack of ammunition…
According to the documents analyzed by the washington postthe American services are concerned about ” persistent deficiencies in the training of men and in the reserves of ammunition “, which could put ” straining all progress and compounding losses during the offensive “. The document concludes that the Ukrainians could only obtain modest territorial gains against the Russians – a far cry from the successes recorded last fall.
The Americans are also worried, says Agence France-Presse, about the worrying state of Ukrainian air defenses which could run out of ammunition by the end of May. These signals are therefore not very encouraging, as the counter-offensive approaches, and which contrast very sharply with the discourse of confidence in Ukrainian military capacities, officially adopted for weeks by the American administration.
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