Pentagon: Ukraine's Counteroffensive Has Made 'Notable Progress'

SEP 2 2023·Updated AUG 27

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Image credit: US Defense Dept. [via Wikimedia Commons]

The Facts

Ukraine's counteroffensive in the southern Zaporizhzhia region has made "notable progress" in the last three days, a top US security official said on Friday.
guardian
John Kirby, spokesman of the White House's National Security Council, said that the US had "noted over the last 72 hours or so some notable progress by Ukrainian armed forces ... in that southern line of advance coming out of the Zaporizhzhia area."
guardian
After reports suggested that Ukraine had broken through the first line of Russian defenses in some areas last week, Kirby added: "They have achieved some success against that second line of Russian defenses."
guardian
Meanwhile, Kirby took aim at some anonymous US officials who criticized Ukraine's performance and tactics in recent media reports, stating that such actions were "not helpful."
guardian
Among such reports came from the New York Times last week that quoted US officials as stating that Ukraine has made limited progress because it has misallocated many of its troops, adding that units were not enacting the Western-recommended methods of combat.
nytimes
Dmytro Kuleba, Ukraine's foreign minister, went a step further than Kirby in condemning such reports. Speaking at a press conference following a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Spain on Thursday, Kuelba said those criticizing Ukraine's progress should "shut up" and try to liberate the territory themselves.
Politico

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The Spin

Pro-establishment narrative

Although Ukrainian progress has been slow, they are finally making important gains and are going in the right direction. War doesn't operate in a linear fashion — defenders may be able to hold for a long time, but when the levee breaks, attackers can make swift progress. There's no reason to believe that Ukraine can't do the same.

Yahoo! News

Establishment-critical narrative

While Ukraine is making incremental gains, it's quite clear that it won't succeed in pushing Russia out of all of the four territories it's claimed to have annexed, let alone Crimea, which was taken in 2014. Now is the time to formulate an achievable endgame to the war — one that also takes into consideration Russia's point of view — to avoid the conflict from erupting once again.