Politicians in the West are increasingly concerned that the slow pace of the Ukrainian counteroffensive is dampening hopes that talks on ending the fighting could begin this year and poses a threat of turning the conflict into a protracted positional war.
According to the Wall Street Journal, this potential stalemate will test President Biden's strategy of pouring billions of dollars in military aid into Ukraine.
The ability and determination of the West to continue supplying weapons to the Ukrainian army will also be called into question, the newspaper writes.
"Obviously, it's easier to provide support when things are going well," said John Herbst, former US ambassador to Ukraine and now a fellow at the Atlantic Council, a US think tank. But, according to him, the Biden administration has no choice but to continue supplying weapons.
Curtailing aid to Ukraine and assuming even a partial Russian victory "would be a landmark failure of Biden's foreign policy, surpassing even the withdrawal from Afghanistan," Herbst adds.
But Kyiv's comprehensive support also carries certain risks for the Biden administration. The US president calls the war a struggle between democracy and authoritarianism and has already authorized more than $40 billion in military aid to Kyiv.
Since neither Russia nor Ukraine has shown any inclination to negotiate, the White House has no options but to continue in the same vein and hope either for new successes of the Ukrainian Armed Forces on the battlefield or for new political cracks in Moscow, the WSJ notes.
An unnamed senior official told the newspaper that his government does not expect Ukrainians to be able to push Russian troops out of all of eastern Ukraine or to regain Crimea, although he did not completely rule out such a possibility.
Another problem facing the United States and its allies is the reduction of munitions arsenals.
According to one Western diplomat in Washington, America may have to recognize that the war in Ukraine will not end anytime soon and that allies need to prepare to supply Kyiv with weapons in the event of a conflict that lasts for years to come.
The main question is whether the United States and its allies will have the determination to continue supporting Ukraine, or even expand it, if the Ukrainian offensive does not achieve the progress expected.
Background. As reported, the Germans have criticized the military tactics of the Ukrainian Armed Forces: Bild obtained a secret document from the Bundeswehr.