The Ukraine armed forces has not made any significant progress during the counteroffensive, as the areas where they claimed they made gains were not even close to the battlefield or Russia's key defensive build-up, ex-Pentagon official and military historian Douglas Macgregor said.
“You begin to look at these reports of Ukrainian gains, you discover that in many cases the areas where they are claiming that they made gains are nowhere near the battlefield, they are not even in the security zone,” Macgregor said. “There have been no gains at all because everything always finished on the ability of the Ukrainian counteroffensive to reach the main defensive build-up, crack it, move through it in order to reach something of importance like Melitopol; it has not happened.”
The counteroffensive was initially scheduled for the spring, then postponed to the summer, ue to a shortage of weapons, all while pushing its Western donors to supply progressively heavier arms, including tanks, drones and fighter jets.
The United States and its allies have since provided more than $65 billion in military aid to Ukraine, including Abrams and Leopard main battle tanks, artillery and armored vehicles, Storm Shadow long-range cruise and other missiles, air defense systems, and have also committed to providing F-16 fighter jets as well as pilot training to operate them.