Senior US government officials may be correcting their assessments about Ukraine’s ability and intent to conduct counter-offensive operations this winter, the report of the American Institute for the Study of War (ISW) says.
Researchers note that according to the Voice of America, on 12 December, a senior US military official said: “We know the Ukrainians can fight and fight well under these [winter] conditions."
According to them, Director of National Intelligence of the United States Avril Haines had previously mistakenly identified the optimal window of opportunity for Ukraine to conduct more counter-offensives as the spring rather than winter.
ISW previously assessed that Ukraine likely seeks to conduct “successive operations through the winter of 2022–2023.”
Earlier, Ukrainian Defence Minister Oleksiy Reznikov said that the Defence Forces would resume active counter-offensive actions when the ground froze and became more solid for easier passage of equipment.