President of Poland Andrzej Duda believes that with the amount of weapons currently at the disposal of Ukrainian forces, Ukraine cannot change the balance in the war.
The Polish President stated this in an interview with The Washington Post.
Duda noted that thanks to supplies from partners, Ukraine now has a much more modern military capability than Russia. However, according to him, it’s not sufficient.
“The question is: Does Ukraine have enough weapons to change the balance of the war and get the upper hand? And the answer is probably no. They probably do not have enough weapons. And we know this by the fact that they’re not currently able to carry out a very decisive counteroffensive against the Russian military. To make a long story short, they need more assistance.,” the Polish president said.
The United States Department of Defence has recorded the advance of the Ukrainian Armed Forces during the counteroffensive against Russian invading forces in the south and east of the country. However, Washington estimates that it will be a difficult and lengthy fight.
Several Western news outlets reported the reasons for the “slow” counteroffensive progress – Russian minefields in up to 10 kilometres deep in front of Russia’s essential fortifications, and also the Ukrainian army’s lack of demining systems. As a result, Ukrainians had to change their strategy.
Read also: Russian minefields stifle Ukraine’s counteroffensive
Demining on the frontline is a crucial task for the Ukrainian Armed Forces to advance in their counteroffensive against Russian invading troops.
Military aid provided by Western allies also focuses on demining equipment that the Ukrainian servicemen employ to clear pre-frontline Russian minefields and liberated territories from Russian mines.
The Ukrainians are using tactics to pull Russian units out from well-fortified second-line defence positions to areas which are under the targeted fire of Ukrainian artillery. That is why there are no significant advances deep into the Russian defence line. But in the medium term, this approach will exhaust invading Russian troops in occupied Ukrainian territories a lot.
Read also: Is Ukraine’s counteroffensive slow? What’s required to make it faster?
Ukrainian forces are methodically cutting off the supply routes of the Russian troops in the south. It’s part of the campaign focused on setting conditions for future decisive counteroffensive operations.
Thanks to the courage of the Ukrainian military and Western weapons, the attacks of the Russian invaders were repelled. However, there has been no significant progress in the Ukrainian counteroffensive, as Ukraine still lacks long-range missiles and air cover. The situation may change once the supply routes for Russian troops in the south are entirely cut off.
