Ukraine is upset by pessimistic assessment of US regarding success of counteroffensive, - Politico
Representatives of the Ukrainian authorities are upset by the US leak regarding the assessment of the counteroffensive, which states that Ukraine will be able to obtain "modest territorial gains." Ukrainian officials believe that the USA once again underestimates the capabilities of the AFU.
This is stated in the Politico publication, Censor.NET reports with reference to Ukrainian Pravda.
Senior Ukrainian officials told reporters they were upset by the leak of a "top secret" February assessment that suggested Ukraine would make only "modest territorial gains" from the planned counteroffensive.
The Washington Post, which reported on the document on Monday, said it was part of a leak of classified US intelligence about the war in Ukraine, China, Israel, and other hot spots around the world.
Kyiv claims that the document shows that the US once again underestimates the capabilities of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
Thus, a person who is in contact with high-ranking officials in Kyiv stated that "the same people who said that Kyiv would fall in three days are now pouring out harmful and equally ridiculous information on the eve of an offensive that is critically important for the entire free world."
Journalists also quote a representative of the Ukrainian Defense Ministry.
"There are people who continue to doubt Ukraine's military chances in a counteroffensive, but we proved them all wrong," said a representative of the Ministry of Defense.
According to him, the forecasts about Ukraine's chances "do not correspond to reality": "This gives us grounds for suspicion about how seriously the US supports Ukraine's goals of completely ousting Russia from the country."
A source in the Ukrainian government said that such sentiments are widespread in the Cabinet of Ministers.
All media interlocutors spoke anonymously in order to talk in detail about sensitive internal discussions in Ukraine.
Politico believes the comments signal that the US and Ukraine are not as in sync as both countries claim after 14 months of war.
"It could also signal a decline in trust between Washington and Kyiv ahead of a crucial few months of fighting that could dictate the course of the war with Russia.
Since Russia controls 20 percent of the territory of Ukraine, there is hope that a counteroffensive, even if supplies are reduced, will force Moscow's troops and mercenaries to leave the country they invaded," the newspaper writes.
It will be recalled that the military documents, which describe in detail the secret plans of the US and NATO to build up the Ukrainian army before the planned offensive against Russia, were published on Telegram and Twitter at the beginning of April.
Later, a new portion of classified documents appeared on social networks, which probably detail American national security secrets regarding Ukraine, the Middle East, and China.
The US Department of Justice has started an investigation into the leak of a huge number of US intelligence documents.
According to Reuters, classified information about US and NATO plans to strengthen the AFU before a counteroffensive "leaked" on the network may be a fake. In turn, as Politico writes, the leak of secret documents led to a crisis in relations between the United States and its allies.
Due to the leak of secret Pentagon documents, Ukraine has already changed some of its military plans.
The Ministry of Defense of Great Britain stressed that the published documents contain significant inaccuracies, so "readers should be careful and not take at face value statements that could potentially spread misinformation."
