Both Ukraine and Russia unable to launch major offensives, Pentagon report says
Ukraine and Russia both lack the means to mount major offensives, the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency said in a quarterly report covering the three-month period ending June 30, quoted by Bloomberg on Aug. 21.
Suggesting the war is headed for a stalemate, the report says that despite the stalled U.S. aid package passed earlier this year, Ukraine is only capable of defensive operations.
In turn, Russia does not have the resources to "threaten a deeper advance into Ukrainian-held territory, such as Kharkiv city," according to the report.
Since the end of the period covered by the report, Ukraine has launched a surprise incursion into Russia's Kursk Oblast and now reportedly holds 1,263 square kilometers (488 square miles) of Russian territory.
The report echoes sentiments aired by U.S. officials in public.
Mark Milley, the former Chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, said on June 21 that negotiations are needed to stop Moscow's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, but Russian President Vladimir Putin "cannot be trusted."
In a talk at Princeton University, Milley said that from a military perspective, the war was now at a stalemate, with Russia unable to achieve its original goals.
"It is unlikely that anyone will be able to achieve a political solution through military means," he said in the comments reported by Voice of America.
"Therefore, both sides should recognize this and achieve an alternative method to solve their political problem, and that would be a negotiation."
Chris York
