Further U.S. military support for Ukraine depends directly on the success of the counterattack that has begun, five senior officials in President Joe Biden’s administration told Politico.
According to them, if the offensive stalls or fails, Washington’s military and economic assistance may dry up and an accelerated search for a diplomatic solution will begin. Politico previously wrote that the White House was considering the option of freezing the conflict according to the Korean scenario – with the demarcation line serving as an informal border.
U.S. officials do not know whether Congress will approve additional funding for Ukraine if Kyiv fails to make progress on the battlefield. The White House fears that any offensive mistakes could give the Republican majority in the House of Representatives an excuse to thwart the Senate Democrats’ initiative to increase defense spending.
Moreover, if the offensive fails, U.S. President Joe Biden’s reputation will suffer – he will lose a landmark foreign policy victory and the opportunity to present himself as a world-class statesman in the battle for a new presidential term, sources say.
President Joe Biden himself, at a meeting with British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, assured that he intends to provide Ukraine with “long-term security to prevent aggression in the future, after this war”. According to him, the United States has the funding to “support Ukraine for as long as necessary”.
The day before, the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) reported that Ukraine had gone on a counteroffensive. According to it, the AFU is attacking on the border of Zaporizhzhya and Donetsk regions, as well as in the Orekhovo district of Zaporizhzhya region. According to military experts, the offensive will not be a single large-scale operation, but several attacks of varying intensity in different places on the front. At the same time, the Armed Forces will suffer heavy losses during the first stage of the campaign.
At the same time, a spokesman for the AFU General Staff told Reuters that he had no information about the counteroffensive. However, two Ukrainian officials, including a person close to President Volodymyr Zelensky, confirmed to ABC News the start of the offensive campaign. The Washington Post also wrote about it, citing four Ukrainian servicemen.
