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July 18 () –
The head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the United States, Mark Milley, has assured this Tuesday that the counteroffensive of the Armed Forces of Ukraine “is far from failing” although for the moment the advances have been few and expensive.
Milley recalled that the counteroffensive started “five or six weeks” ago and that “certain levels of progress” were predicted in preparation for the operation, which then, once it was launched, has “slowed down”, reports .
When explaining the situation, the head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the United States has been very clear and has stressed that this is precisely the difference between “the war on paper and the real war.”
“These are real people on real machines that are really clearing real minefields and they’re really dying. So when this happens, units tend to slow down, and that’s fine for surviving and going through minefields,” Milley said. .
“It is far from being a failure. From my point of view, I think it is too early to make that kind of statement. I think there is a lot of fighting ahead,” added Milley, who has assured that Kiev has no war material yet. used in the counteroffensive.
“I won’t say what will happen in the future, because it will be a Ukrainian decision as to where and when they commit their reserve. Right now they are preserving their combat power, and they are slowly, deliberately and steadily making their way through all the minefields”, has settled.
The commander of the Land Forces of the Ukrainian Army, General Alexander Sirski, has acknowledged this Tuesday that it is “practically impossible” to achieve immediate success in the much-announced Ukrainian counteroffensive, and that the progress of the mission “is not going so fast “as they would have wished.
However, he trusts that the “unity” of the Army and the “confidence” of the Ukrainian soldiers in victory during these almost seventeen months of fighting will make a difference in the future. “That is our strong point,” he stressed.
