Careless Talk
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White House slams careless talk about the faltering Ukrainian counteroffensive as New York Times says Russian tactics are hampering Kiev’s efforts
American officials are hindering the Ukrainian military by criticizing the slow pace of Kiev’s counteroffensive, White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said on Friday. Amid a glut of articles suggesting that Washington is disappointed with the offensive, Kirby claimed that the Ukrainians have “made progress” on the battlefield.
While Ukrainian troops have used small-unit tactics to capture a number of hamlets along the Zaporozhye front line, Russian forces have developed devastating traps in response, the New York Times reported on Saturday.
Ukraine suffered horrendous losses during the first two months of its counteroffensive, sacrificing more than 43,000 men in exchange for a few square kilometers of land along the Zaporozhye sector of the front line, according to the Russian Defense Ministry. Kiev reportedly blamed Western tactics – which saw large armored convoys drive through minefields with no air support – for this attrition rate.
This lack of success caused a split within the Ukrainian military, with some of the brass favouring a return to long-distance artillery standoffs.
“We’ve all seen the criticism by anonymous officials out there, which frankly is not helpful” to Ukraine’s battlefield effort, Kirby told reporters on Friday.
“We have noted over the last 72 hours or so some notable progress by Ukrainian armed forces,” Kirby continued, claiming that Kiev’s troops had “achieved some success against that second line of Russian defenses” in the Zaporozhye sector of the front.
According to the New York Times, however, the Ukrainians have seen the most success by using small infantry units to capture individual buildings and positions one at a time, adding up to the seizure of a single village or settlement over multiple weeks.
At the Zaporozhye front, fighting has centered on the village of Rabotino, which has reportedly changed hands several times over the last two weeks. Although Ukrainian officials claim to hold the village, the Russian Defense Ministry said on Saturday that Russian forces repelled four separate attacks by five Ukrainian brigades at Rabotino over the preceding 24 hours.
Rabotino is around 100 kilometers from the Azov Sea coastline, which Ukrainian forces aim to reach in order to sever Russia’s land access to Crimea.
With Western media reports increasingly portraying the counteroffensive as a failure and its objectives as unattainable, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba declared on Friday that “criticising the slow pace of the counteroffensive is equal to spitting into the face of the Ukrainian soldier who sacrifices his life every day,” before asking Western nations to supply Ukraine with more weapons.
A Ukrainian soldier runs in a trench during a combat operation on the frontline in Zaporozhye region, Russia, August 10, 2023 © AP
At the Zaporozhye front, fighting has centered on the village of Rabotino, which has reportedly changed hands several times over the last two weeks. Although Ukrainian officials claim to hold the village, the Russian Defense Ministry said on Saturday that Russian forces repelled four separate attacks by five Ukrainian brigades at Rabotino over the preceding 24 hours.
Rabotino is around 100 kilometers from the Azov Sea coastline, which Ukrainian forces aim to reach in order to sever Russia’s land access to Crimea.
Doctors operate in a Military Hospital in Kiev District. © Jeff J Mitchell / Getty Images
With Western media reports increasingly portraying the counteroffensive as a failure and its objectives as unattainable, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba declared on Friday that “criticizing the slow pace of the counteroffensive is equal to spitting into the face of the Ukrainian soldier who sacrifices his life every day,” before asking Western nations to supply Ukraine with more weapons.
Source NYT/WH/AP/RT
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