The Washington Post about the new strategy for Ukraine (video)

Western allies are calling on Ukraine, says WP, to focus on long-range fire, containing the Russian Black Sea Fleet and tying up Russian forces in Crimea.

How notes publication, the US presidential administration is developing a new strategy for Ukraine. The emphasis is on helping Kyiv repel new offensives by the Russian army, rather than on recapturing territory captured by Russia. The American edition of The Washington Post writes about this, with reference to White House officials, on January 26.

Kiev’s Western allies want Ukraine to focus on tactics that have proven successful and effective in recent times: long-range fire, containing the Russian Black Sea Fleet, tying down Russian forces in annexed Crimea through missile strikes and sabotage. The West hopes, the publication notes, that in 2024 Ukraine will be able to avoid territorial losses.

Washington’s strategy is to put Ukraine “on a different trajectory so that it becomes much stronger by the end of the year,” the source explains:

“It is quite obvious that it will be difficult for them (the Ukrainian Armed Forces) to achieve the same serious breakthrough on all fronts that they tried to make last year.”

The new strategy is significantly different from last year, the publication writes, when the United States and allies trained Ukrainian military personnel and sent modern equipment to Kyiv. They hoped that this would help quickly push Russian forces out of the territories they held in eastern and southern Ukraine. But these efforts failed, largely due to Russian minefields and fortified trenches.

According to one of The Washington Post’s interlocutors, the new strategy does not mean that the Ukrainians will simply build defensive trenches and “sit in them all year.” There will still be “territory exchanges” on both sides in small population centers of strategic value, “missile and drone launches,” and Russian troops will continue to attack civilian infrastructure.

However, this plan, as The Washington Post notes, carries political risks – Ukrainians may begin to express dissatisfaction with the stagnation at the front, and the leaders of Western countries understand that the patience of their citizens with regard to financing the war in Ukraine is not unlimited.

The new US plan is part of the efforts of three dozen allied countries of Ukraine. Each of them is preparing a document with specific obligations to support Ukraine for the next 10 years, the publication emphasizes. In mid-January, Great Britain signed an agreement on security guarantees with Ukraine, and France intends to conclude a similar agreement with the Ukrainian side. tells D.W.

Let us recall that on January 12, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak arrived in Kiev, who signed an agreement on security guarantees with Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky, valid until Ukraine joins NATO, and announced the allocation of 2.5 billion pounds sterling in military assistance.

The United States plans to unveil its own 10-year treaty in the spring. According to WP, the agreement will guarantee Ukraine support for short-term military operations and the creation of military capabilities capable of deterring aggression from the Russian Federation. The document will also include programs that will help protect, restore and expand Ukraine’s industrial and export base, and help it carry out the political reforms necessary to integrate into Western institutions.

Source link