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American general: Ukrainian counteroffensive will be long and bloody

2023-07-01 16:05:24, Kosova & Bota CNA

Ukraine's counteroffensive against Russia will be difficult and "very bloody," the top US military officer, Mark Milley, has said.

"What I have said is that this will take six, eight, ten weeks... It will be very difficult. It will be very long and it will be very, very bloody. And no one should have any illusions about that," said Milley.

The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said he was not surprised that the Ukrainian military's progress had been slower than anticipated, but added that Ukraine was "advancing steadily".

"It's going a bit slowly, but that's part of the nature of war," he told an audience at the National Press Club in Washington, according to Britain's public broadcaster the BBC.

Last week, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky acknowledged that the offensive was making slow progress.

During the meeting held in Washington on June 30, Milley said that the counteroffensive was "advancing steadily, going deliberately through very difficult, mined areas... 500 meters a day, 1,000 meters a day, 2,000 meters a day ".

"War on paper and real war are different. In real war, real people die. Real people are on those front lines and real people are in those vehicles. "Real bodies are being torn apart by high explosives," he said.

Ukrainian soldiers "were attacking through minefields and trenches," he said, adding that this counteroffensive "is literally a fight for their lives."

He said that the US was giving Ukraine help "as much as possible".

General Milley is the principal military adviser to the US President, the US Secretary of Defense and the US National Security Council.

Meanwhile, Ukraine's military commander-in-chief, Valery Zaluzhny, said the counteroffensive had been hampered by a lack of adequate firepower.

In an interview with the US medium Washington Post published on June 30, he said he was frustrated by the slow delivery of weapons promised by the West, from modern fighter jets to artillery ammunition.

"I don't need 120 planes. I will not threaten the whole world. A very limited number would be enough," he said.

Meanwhile, the head of the US Central Intelligence Agency, William Burns, is reported to have made an unannounced visit to Ukraine last month, where he met with President Zelensky and Ukrainian intelligence officials./ REL