WASHINGTON, September 13. /TASS/. The Kiev regime is running out of resources in its futile attempts at a counteroffensive, and the West is currently uncapable of outweighing Russia strategically in Ukraine by sending weapons, retired US Marine Corps intelligence officer Scott Ritter said in an interview with TASS on Tuesday.
As Ritter elaborated on how much longer Kiev will be able to keep making attempts at an offensive, he said: "This is a question of what resources the Ukrainians are willing to commit to that. They have expended, according to [Russian President] Vladimir Putin, 71 thousand casualties. That is 11 thousand more than the 60 thousand trained by the West. They've suffered tremendous materiel losses. They are running out of money. They are running out of trained manpower. I think ultimately the question is how many more thousands of Ukrainian lives is [Ukrainian President Vladimir] Zelensky and the West willing to sacrifice."
According to Ritter, also formerly a United Nations Special Commission inspector, "Russia appears to take a stance where they're going to allow the Ukrainians to expend lives recklessly. I don't think Russia will go over to the offensive until Ukraine's done throwing lives away." "I think they're running out of resources," he said, commenting on the Ukrainians. "I honestly believe that they've exhausted their ability to continue this fight. And by the end of summer - early fall, the counteroffensive will be over. And then the question is, what does Ukraine have left to continue their resistance."
Also, Ritter commented on the recent US decision to send depleted uranium rounds to the Kiev regime. "Let me make it clear that there is literally nothing that the West can provide Ukraine that's going to change the balance of power," he said. "Russia is in a strategically superior position across the board. A depleted uranium munition is for the M1 Abrams tank. These are anti-armor rounds. But I don't think Russia is just going to sit there and let M1 Abrams come up and shoot a Russian tank without resisting. The Russians will be shooting back," he added.
"The Russians are familiar with this ammunition. And I believe they build protection systems on their armor to deal with this. The tragedy here is that more Ukrainians are gonna die. And if they expend enough quantities of this ammunition, they're gonna poison the soil. So, the future generations of the Ukrainians and Russians who live there will also suffer but it's not going to change the outcome on the battle," the US expert underscored.
On Tuesday, Ritter attended a reception devoted to cooperation between Russia and Africa that the Russian Ambassador to the United States, Anatoly Antonov, hosted at his residence,.