courtesy: VOA News
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The US intelligence community has claimed that Ukraine’s counteroffensive will fail to reach the key southeastern city of Melitopol, as informed by the sources to The Washington Post. This means that Kyiv won’t be able to fulfill its principal objective of severing Russia’s land bridge to Crimea in this year’s push.
The forecast is based on Russia’s brutal proficiency into defending its occupied territory with the help of minefields and trenches. It is also more likely to prompt finger pointing in Kyiv as well as capitals in Western countries about why a counteroffensive failed in its mission despite of having billions of dollars of Western weapons and military equipment.
As per the US officials, the Ukrainian forces which is moving towards the Melitopol city from the town of Robotyne more than 50 miles away, will be halted several miles outside of the city. Ukrainian government and Western officials interviewed for this report and spoke on the condition on anonymity.
Melitopol is considered crucial to Ukraine’s counteroffensive because it is gateway to Crimea. Geographically, the city sits at the intersection of two important highway and also has a railroad line that allows Russia to moves its military equipment to its other occupied territories in Ukraine.