Making headway against the odds

Impatience among US officials over the progress of Ukraine’s counteroffensive is misplaced. It ignores the reality, as retired US general David Petraeus says, that because the Biden administration took so long to respond to Kyiv’s pleas for F-16 combat aircraft, first made more than a year ago, Vladimir Putin’s control of the skies over Ukraine gives him a huge advantage. It also ignores the reality that the start of the counteroffensive was delayed because of grave shortages of weapons and munitions. That delay, Cameron Stewart reported on Tuesday, gave the Kremlin tyrant “plenty of time to construct elaborate defences”. Those defences have included vast lines of antitank barricades and the most concentrated minefields seen since World War II, with five mines per square metre.

That is what Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s valiant forces are up against. They still don’t have the F-16s they have begged Washington to provide. Russia continues to dominate the skies, providing crucial cover for its ground forces. Neither do the Ukrainians have weapons such as the long-range missiles known as ATACMS Mr Petraeus says are vital to strike deep behind Russian lines. They are, in the words of one military analyst, embarked on a counteroffensive “with one arm tied behind their backs”. But they are making progress – maybe not quickly enough for the likes of US Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman General Mark Milley, who has described it as “bloody, long and slow”, but real progress. For the first time Ukrainian forces have broken through Russia’s first layer of minefields, tank traps and trenches.

It coincides with the appointment of a Crimean Tatar, Rustem Umerov, to the key role of defence minister. That move shows Mr Zelensky is dealing with corruption allegations within the defence ministry and is committed to regaining control of Crimea. Such determination on the frontline of Ukraine’s fight back needs to be encouraged, not demeaned by US officials and others, including Donald Trump and other Republican leaders, who oppose further US involvement. Nothing could be more shortsighted at this critical stage of a conflict in which victory is imperative to turning the tide against the world’s worst tyrants. Blaming Ukraine for slow progress plays into Mr Putin’s hands.