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Military operation in Ukraine

Kiev’s top security official concedes slim odds of battlefield success

Alexander Litvinenko also pointed to Washington’s "absolutely unfair" ban on the Ukrainian army using American-supplied weapons to strike targets inside Russia

MOSCOW, May 22. /TASS/. The chances of a Ukrainian breakthrough on the battlefield this year are slim, Alexander Litvinenko, secretary of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council, conceded.

In an interview with the Financial Times, he said that the Ukrainian armed forces continued to fight and their "task right now is to tip the scale."

Litvinenko also pointed to Washington’s "absolutely unfair" ban on the Ukrainian army using American-supplied weapons to strike targets inside Russia. According to him, the US should lift the ban in order to help Ukraine.

Kiev likes to avoid talking about its failures and difficulties on the battlefield. For example, it took some time for the Ukrainian authorities to recognize the failure of the counteroffensive that the Kiev forces had been trying to carry out since July 2023. The Ukrainian army also planned to go on the offensive more this year but now, the country’s military and political leaders say that the army is in a difficult situation, particularly in the Kharkov Region.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian political scientist Dmitry Korneichuk said back in January that head of the Defense Ministry’s Main Intelligence Directorate (GUR) Kirill Budanov was beginning to change his tune about the Ukrainian army’s ability to resist the Russian Armed Forces. According to the expert, the GUR chief, who used to talk optimistically about the Ukrainian military making great strides in its counteroffensive and even entering Crimea, is now preparing the Ukrainian people for the freezing of the conflict.

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Military operation in Ukraine

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