Washington Post: Ukrainian officials fear upcoming counteroffensive may not live up to expectations

Top Ukrainian officials fear that the much-anticipated upcoming Ukrainian offensive that is expected to turn the tide of the war may not live up to expectations, the Washington Post reported, citing interviews with senior Ukrainian officials.

“The expectation from our counteroffensive campaign is overestimated in the world,” Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov told the Washington Post. “Most people are … waiting for something huge,” he said, which could lead to “emotional disappointment,” the newspaper reported.

The outcome of Ukraine's counteroffensive is expected to be a critical turning point in the war that will determine whether Ukraine reclaims more of its territory or is pressured by allies to meet with Russia at the negotiating table. Western supplies of weapons are seen as critical to Ukraine's ability to launch a successful counteroffensive.

“I believe that the more victories we have on the battlefield, frankly, the more people will believe in us, which means we will get more help,” President Volodymyr Zelensky told the Washington Post in an interview in Kyiv.  

According to the Washington Post, Western partners have told Kyiv that a successful military operation against Russia is necessary to keep the flow of Western military aid coming, but Reznikov told the newspaper that it's impossible to gauge what a successful counteroffensive will look like exactly.

"I cannot tell you what the scale of this success would be. Ten kilometers, 30 kilometers, 100 kilometers, 200 kilometers?," Reznikov told the Washington Post.