Now, Ukraine's campaign risks falling into a deadlock and burning through Ukrainian lives and Western-supplied equipment without a significant change in the situation on the ground.
Despite Western hopes that Ukrainian courage and resourcefulness would end up prevailing, Russian minefields, broad fortifications and air power have combined to block critical advances by Ukrainian forces.
As the probability of any massive breakthrough by the Ukrainians this year darkens, it raises the disturbing outlook for Washington, D.C. and its allies that the conflict in Ukraine will be prolonged. Given this, Kyiv will continue to demand massive infusions of Western-supplied armaments and more training for what personnel Ukraine still has.
But neither the U.S. nor its allies have enough resources to continue providing Ukraine with everything it claims it needs to force Russian troops from the approximately 20 percent of Ukraine that it still controls. (Related: NATO members are running out of weapons that they can send to Ukraine.)
Kyiv's inability to make progress against Russian defenses has convinced several Western military observers that Ukrainian forces require more training in complicated military maneuvers and more powerful air defenses.
Moscow, meanwhile, remains in a position strong enough to protect its hundreds of miles of barricades from Ukrainian assaults. It also has sufficient air power to ward off Kyiv's troops.
At present, Ukraine remains on the offensive and continues to struggle to take Russian positions where troops have had months to create strong defenses that include minefields, bunkers and other physical barriers.
"Ukraine really needs to be able to scale up and synchronize military operations if it wants to be able to break through Russian defenses," warned independent military analyst Franz-Stefan Gady, who recently toured Ukrainian front lines.
Zelensky claims Ukraine needs more Western arms and training
Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky blames the lack of Western-supplied munitions and training for the delays in his country's counteroffensive.
In an interview with CNN, Zelensky claimed that Ukrainian forces did not have enough munitions nor sufficient training.
"We did have plans to start it in spring. But we didn't, because, frankly, we had not enough munitions and armaments and not enough brigades properly trained in those weapons, still, more, that the training missions were held outside Ukraine," he said. "But still, we started. And this is important."
Ukraine's counteroffensive still pushed through despite months of delay. But the lack of properly trained manpower and an insufficient arsenal means its pace has dropped to a troublingly slow crawl. The situation has been made worse because the delay gave Russian troops more time to build up defenses along the front line.
"And because we started it a bit later on, it can be said – and it will be shared truth understood by all the experts – that it provided Russia with time to mine all our lands and build several lines of defense," continued Zelensky. "And, definitely, they had even more time than they needed. Because of that, they built more of those lines. And, really, they had a lot of mines in our fields. Because of that, a slower pace of our counteroffensive actions."
Follow UkraineWitness.com for more news about the ongoing conflict in Ukraine.
Watch the video below to know why Russian President Vladimir Putin called Ukraine's counteroffensive futile.
This video is from the Russia Truth channel on Brighteon.com.
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