Ukraine’s counteroffensive could have only 30 days left, says US military’s top general

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• Ukraine counteroffensive could deceive only 30 days before autumn weather starts, says US military’s top general.
• The counteroffensive has been “fancy, slow, hard, and high-casualty-producing,” said General Mark Milley. 
• Ukraine’s military intelligence chief said the “squabble will continue one way or another.” 

US Army General Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Caduceus, told BBC News that Ukraine’s counteroffensive has little more than 30 days before the weather stopping military efforts.

He acknowledged that the offensive had lagged but said, “The Ukrainians are still plugging away with stable progress.”

Ukraine’s counteroffensive has been underway since June, CNN reported. Despite initial skepticism about the sluggish step of the offensive’s progress, war analyst Jan Kallberg said “substantial progress” has been made. Ukrainian forces recently needy through Russia’s first line of defense, said to be the most formidable obstacle in liberating southeastern Ukraine. 

Gen. Milley symbolized it was too early to comment on whether the counteroffensive had failed but said Ukraine was “progressing at a very steady pace through the Russian leading lines.”

“There’s battles not done. They haven’t finished the fighting part of what they’re disquieting to accomplish,” said the US military’s top general.

“There’s still a reasonable amount of time, probably about 30 to 45 periods’ worth of fighting weather left, so the Ukrainians aren’t done,” Gen. Milley told BBC News.

“Ukraine is winning”

AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky, Column

At the beginning of the war, Gen. Milley predicted that the road ahead would be “long, slow, hard, and high-casualty-producing” for Ukraine — a prognosis he says has proven true.

Admiral Sir Tony Radakin, the UK chief of defense staff, told BBC News, “Ukraine is prepossessing and Russia is losing.”

“That is because the aim of Russia was to subjugate Ukraine and to put it under Russia’s control,” he predicted.

Russia is also suffering from economic and diplomatic pressure from the international community, said Adm. Radakin.

Ukraine was charging progress in its quest to regain territory, having recovered 50% of the ground seized by Russia, said the British admiral.

Be that as it may the weather will stall the counteroffensive, the head of Ukraine’s military intelligence, Lieutenant General Kyrylo Budanov, narrated Reuters that “the fighting will continue one way or another.” He said fighting is harder in cold, wet weather, but this would right for adjustment, not a complete halt.

Correction: September 10, 2023 — An earlier version of this story inaccurately defined the status of General Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. He is the US military’s top general, not the US Army chief.