NEW YORK, June 29. /TASS/. Ukraine may require 117 years to completely take back the territories, lost during the ongoing crisis with current counteroffensive speed, says US publicist, Pulitzer Prize laureate Seymour Hersh.
"I have been told that in the past ten days Ukrainian forces have not fought their way through the Russian defenses in any significant way," he noted in his article, published on the Substack website, adding that Ukrainian forces were able to take only about 2.5 square kilometers.
Meanwhile, since the beginning of the so-called counteroffensive, Ukrainian forces were mainly able to advance only on open terrain, Hersh noted.
"At that pace, one informed official said, waggishly, it would take Zelensky’s military 117 years to rid the country of Russian occupation," he wrote.
According to the Russian Defense Ministry, Ukrainian forces have been making futile offensive attempts since June 4. On June 22, Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolay Patrushev said that Ukraine has lost over 13,000 personnel since the beginning of the counteroffensive. Russian President Vladimir Putin also underscored that Ukrainian forces have been unsuccessful on all directions.