LONDON, August 23. /TASS/. Ukraine may be faced with a military defeat unless the administration of US President Donald Trump succeeds in its attempts to resolve the conflict, Samuel Ramani, a columnist at The Daily Telegraph, wrote.

According to him, "as the prospects for a swift peace settlement recede, the battlefield situation for Ukraine has become increasingly problematic." In particular, Ramani noted that Russian forces claimed victory in Chasov Yar and have continued their march on the battleground of Krasnoarmeysk (known as Pokrovsk in Ukraine).

"Kiev has two severe areas of weakness," the reporter continued. "The first is its acute manpower shortages," he stressed. Also, Ramani added, Ukrainian troops in the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) "remain understaffed." The second area, he argued, is "growing internal discord within Ukraine’s command structure." "Trump’s peace plan is showing signs of faltering. For Russia, this buys valuable time. For Ukraine, it could be catastrophic," the columnist concluded.