BRUSSELS, March 21. /TASS/. The Western countries fear that the Russian Armed Forces may achieve new breakthroughs in the special operation’s zone in Ukraine this summer, says Alissa de Carbonnel, deputy program director for Europe and Central Asia at the International Crisis Group.

"There is a lot of fear that we could reach a tipping point where we could potentially see some real Russian breakthroughs this summer," she stated to the European edition of Politico.

The article notes that despite the fact that the EU recently agreed on 5 billion euros to partially reimburse member states for new arms shipments to Ukraine, the situation on the battlefield remained dire.

On March 13, the commander-in-chief of Ukraine’s armed forces, Alexander Syrsky, recognized that the situation almost along the entire line of engagement was complicated.

Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu said on February 27 that the Ukrainian military had lost more than 444,000 men during the special military operation. Since the beginning of 2024 it has been losing an average of 800 men a day.