Newsweek: Ukraine may be starting to lose confidence

World 20 December, 2023 18:22

There are signs that Ukraine may be starting to lose confidence, Newsweek wrote.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has warned that a decline in aid from the U.S. and other Western allies could have dire consequences on the battlefield, while a number of Kyiv's military officials have suggested in recent days that Russia may be gaining strength as winter takes hold.

Ukrainian Air Force spokesperson Colonel Yuriy Ihnat noted during a television interview on Monday that Russian forces "now have enough drones to attack Ukraine every day from different directions," according to The New Voice of Ukraine. Ihnat also said that Russia was busy "accumulating" missiles.

Colonel General Oleksandr Syrsky, the commander of Ukraine's ground forces, admitted in a Telegram post on Tuesday that Russia had achieved military "superiority," due in part to Moscow being willing and able to sacrifice large numbers of troops in a war of attrition.

"The situation is complicated," Syrsky wrote. "We have to fight in conditions of superiority of the enemy both in weapons and in the number of personnel...The enemy suffers heavy losses, which he replenishes with the reserves of assault battalions formed from former prisoners."

Meanwhile, Ukraine is apparently being forced to scale back or change its strategy due to a shortfall of ammunition on the battlefield.

Ukrainian Brigadier General Oleksandr Tarnavskyi said in an interview published by Reuters on Monday that the military was "replanning" its efforts due to shortages "across the entire front line."

Tarnavskyi called the situation a "very big problem," noting that offensive operations had been turned to defense "in some areas," while reserve forces were being prepared for "further large-scale actions" in the future.

As per Newsweek, military aid from allies could help to at least temporarily alleviate some of Ukraine's difficulties. Denmark announced around $1.1 billion in new aid last week, while a trickle of currently-approved U.S. funding is nearing its end.

However, a $60-billion U.S. aid package is held up in Congress over Republican demands for unrelated U.S.-Mexico border security measures, while Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban last week vetoed the European Union's plan to send Kyiv approximately $54.6 billion in aid.

Zelenskyy's private meeting with U.S. lawmakers in Washington, D.C. last week seemingly had little or no effect. During a summit with Nordic leaders in Norway one day later, he warned that his country "can't win" the war "without help" from its allies.

President Joe Biden signaled during a press conference with Zelenskyy last week that he had little power to boost aid, saying that the U.S. government would "continue to supply Ukraine with critical weapons and equipment as long as we can."