This coming Friday will mark the two-month anniversary of Ukraine’s counteroffensive, with Ukrainian forces making few gains in close to 60 days of heavy fighting against fortified Russian positions despite receiving NATO training and tens of billions of dollars’ worth of the latest Western defense hardware.
Retired Polish Land Forces General and Special Forces commander Roman Polko has trashed the Ukrainian military over the pace of its counteroffensive, suggesting its operations can’t even really be described as such.
“‘Counteroffensive’ is a strong word. A counteroffensive is by definition acting along a wide front with large forces, conducting operations that clearly show the taking of the initiative. This is not very visible. I would like to engage in wishful thinking myself sometimes, but it’s not very visible,” Polko said in an interview with local media.
“Ukraine, for many reasons, and I don’t know whether this is due to a lack of preparation, or lack of air power and artillery, is limiting its activities to small tactical movements, whether in the area of Bakhmut [Artemovsk] or in the south,” the former commander said.
Polko, who previously served as acting chief of Poland’s Bureau of National Security, and as commander of Polish Special Forces unit JW GROM during the US-led invasion and occupation of Iraq, expressed hopes that Ukrainian forces are just “probing” Russian positions for some future “breakthrough” operations, perhaps in the fall.
While admitting the failure of Kiev’s counteroffensive to date, the Polish officer nevertheless spoke out against the possibility of a peace deal with Moscow, particularly one that is “forced” on Ukraine by its Western patrons. A “compromise consisting of Ukraine depriving itself of part of its territory” would only “postpone” a future conflict, he claimed.
‘Behind Schedule’
Ukrainian officials, including President Volodymyr Zelensky and Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov have increasingly admitted that the long- awaited summer offensive that kicked off on June 4 is going “slower than desired,” and is “behind schedule,” but have nevertheless claimed that everything is going “according to plan,” and that Kiev’s actions are rooted in the desire to limit casualties.
Kiev’s actions say otherwise, with Russia’s defense minister reporting Monday that Kiev had lost nearly 21,000 troops and over 2,200 pieces of military equipment, including NATO-provided heavy armor and artillery, in battles with Russian forces in the month of July alone.
Polko’s complaints about Ukrainian forces’ failure to make progress against Russian positions are the latest instance of Western and NATO officials, media, and officers blaming Kiev and Ukrainian commanders’ tactics instead of asking questions about the quality of Western arms assistance and training, or the wisdom of sending Ukrainian troops on the offensive against entrenched Russian positions without air cover and artillery superiority.