Politico “Senior Defense Department officials report analysis to House Armed Services Committee”
The US Department of Defense is very skeptical that Ukraine will be able to recover Crimea in the near future, Politico reported on the 1st (local time).
It is an evaluation that pours cold water on the will of Ukraine to recapture Crimea, and a backlash is expected from the Ukrainian side.
According to Politico, in a closed door meeting of the Armed Services Committee of the House on the 26th of last month, four senior officials of the United States Department of Defense reported their analysis of these contents to Congress.
According to three officials who were familiar with the briefing at the time, the Pentagon assessed that Ukraine did not have the ability to defeat Russian forces in Crimea at the moment or in the near future.
Another official also said that the briefing at the time was vague, but the point that Ukraine did not have the ability to retake Crimea was clear.
It is not clear on what basis the Pentagon came to that conclusion, Politico reported.
It was reported that Laura Cooper, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Russia, Ukraine, and Eurasia, and Douglas Sims, Director of Operations for the Joint Chiefs of Staff (Lieutenant General), participated in the report.
At the time, Pentagon spokeswoman Sabrina Singh declined to elaborate on the report, saying, “I cannot comment on the content of the confidential briefing.”
However, regarding the military power of Ukraine, “It has shown remarkable results in repelling the Russian offensive.
He showed constant adaptability even on the battlefield.
That itself will be the answer.”
Earlier, Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, expressed a similar view.
“We believe that it will be very difficult to release Russian troops from Russian-occupied areas of Ukraine within this year,” Milley said at a defense conference on the war in Ukraine held in Germany on the 20th of last month.
“It’s not impossible, it doesn’t mean it won’t happen,” he said at the time.
But it’s very difficult,” he said.
A person close to President Volodymyr Zelensky responded to the comments with “provocation,” Politico said.
The Ukrainian leadership has repeatedly expressed its determination to regain Crimea without fail in recent interviews and speeches with the Western media.
For that reason, it seems very likely that the Pentagon will react against the news that it has taken a questionable position.
Andriy Ermak, Chief of Staff of the President of Ukraine, said in a speech at the World Economic Forum (WEF, Davos Forum) last month that there would be no victory for Ukraine without Crimea, and Kirillo Budanow (37), who correctly predicted the Russian invasion , is the military intelligence of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine The director also predicts the possibility of regaining Crimea.
The Crimean Peninsula is a strategic point that was forcefully annexed by Russia in 2014.
During the occupation, Russia built a strong defense network in Crimea.
The air defense system is packed, and hundreds of thousands of troops are stationed there.
The West, including the United States and Europe, has shown a passive stance in supporting arms so that Ukraine can advance to Crimea, while recognizing without doubt that Crimea is a legitimate territory of Ukraine.
/happy news
