Kiev counteroffensive flop must be a Washington 'wake-up call': Hersh
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Investigative journalist Seymour Hersh explains that the failure of the Ukrainian counteroffensive must drive Washington to stop funding the war in Ukraine with the"hope of a miracle that will not arrive."
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A Ukrainian tank rides near Bakhmut, in the Donetsk region, Friday, May 12, 2023. (AP)
Investigative journalist Seymour Hersh said, on Thursday, that the US should consider Kiev's failure to cross over Russian defense lines as a “wake-up call.”
Hersh asserted that throughout the past 10 days of combat, and according to battlefield information provided by an anonymous source, Ukrainian armed forces had only been able to capture two square miles, about 5.2 square kilometers, of Russian-held territory.
The journalist stated that in the two weeks prior, the Ukrainian military had only captured 44 miles of terrain, the majority of which was open country situated before the first of Russia's multilayered defense lines.
An informed official told Hersh that "it would take [Ukrainian President Volodymyr] Zelensky's military 117 years" to reassert Kiev's power over the lands which Russia now controls; which is approximately a surface area of 40,000 square miles.
Hersh urged US President Joe Biden to finally acknowledge, publicly, that “the estimated more than $150 billion that his administration has put up [to arming Ukraine] thus far turned out to be a very bad investment,” before adding that the “looming disaster in Ukraine… should be a wake-up call” for lawmakers in Washington who continue to seek to offer Kiev billions of dollars “in the hope of a miracle that will not arrive.”
Previously, in an interview with George Galloway on Mother of All Talk Shows (MOATS), the Pulitzer Prize-winning US investigative journalist said Ukraine's counteroffensive will not bring any good to Kiev, the United States, or NATO.
Hersh explained how "this [counteroffensive] isn't going to be good for Ukraine, it's not going to be good for NATO, it's certainly not going to be good for the Biden administration."
When asked about the possibility of NATO joining the war, Hersh stated that they were "probably already in it."
The journalist further explained that the Ukrainian army is comprised of "so many disparate groups," comparable to 15 different dance teams that suddenly are forced to organize a routine together after practicing alone for a very long.
Despite the ongoing efforts to attempt to organize, Hersh said it is "impossible" for them to be able to successfully do so.
Read more: Kiev tightens censorship as frontline losses mount: The Intercept
Ukraine mounts losses on multiple fronts amid fragile counteroffensive
The Russian Ministry of Defense published a video on Thursday showing a Russian T-80 tank destroying an American-made Bradley fighting vehicle operated by Ukrainian forces.
The Ministry confirmed that "artillery units succeeded in destroying targets at long distances outside the range of direct vision, using coordinates obtained through the use of drones," noting that the distance of fire was around 9.5 km along the Kupyansk front in the Kharkov region.
Russian forces also destroyed observation posts, warehouses, and foreign military equipment, as per the statement.
Sputnik quoted a member of the Russian combat tank units as saying that the Ukrainian targets were "widely varied, including bunkers, trenches, communication systems and equipment."
In the Donetsk Region, the head of the Russian Battlegroup South press, Vadim Astafyev, told the agency that "the group's artillery destroyed the strongholds of two brigades of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in the regions of Kalinovka and Avdeevka."
Three 120-mm mortars were destroyed on the Mariinsky axis, and units operating the Solntsepyok heavy flamethrower systems targeted Ukrainian forces gathered at the outposts of Malaya town in Kalinovka, according to Astafyev.
Read more: Russian forces destroy 200 tons of Ukrainian ammo on train: MoD
Within 24 hours, Ukraine's military attacked areas in the Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) 34 times, firing 196 shells, according to a statement by the DPR representative in the Joint Center for the Control and Coordination of Issues Related to War Crimes by Ukraine.
The Interim head of the DPR, Denis Pushilin, said the Ukrainian shelling killed two people and left others wounded, many of which are teenagers.
"According to preliminary data, fire from Ukrainian armed formations on the Kirovsky District of Donetsk killed two people and inflicted wounds of various severity to eight more civilians, including five children - girls with dates of birth in 2008, 2009, 2005 and 2009 - and a teenage boy born in 2006," he said on Telegram.
In addition to civilian infrastructure in Yasinovataya and a school in the Petrovsky District of Donetsk, Pushilin also said a number of homes were damaged by the artillery rounds.
Read more: Ukraine counteroffensive success imp. for peace talks: Stoltenberg
