Ukraine’s Plan to Stage New Counteroffensive ‘Act of Desperation’ – Analyst

The Ukrainian Armed Forces’ alleged intent to kick off an autumn counteroffensive indicates that Zelensky is under the West’s pressure to carry on at any cost, retired US Army Lt. Col. and international consultant Earl Rasmussen told Sputnik.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and his curators from the US and the UK have reportedly agreed on Kiev’s new counteroffensive in early October in the Kherson and Zaporozhye areas, an informed source told Sputnik.

The source argued that a large group of marines from the Ukrainian Armed Forces (UAF) is currently stationed in the Nikolayev region awaiting an order to cross the Dnepr River. Additionally, UAF special forces, who were trained by British military instructors, plan to seize the Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant, according to the insider.

Earl Rasmussen, for his part, told Sputnik that this plan “doesn’t make a lot of sense,” something that can also be described as an “act of desperation.”

“This is a catastrophe, this spring/summer/autumn counteroffensive,” the analyst said, referring to Ukraine’s huge death toll.

“The [Ukrainian] army is basically diminished… I think he [Zelensky]'s getting pressure from the West to continue to show some type of progress,” according to Rasmussen.

He insisted that “the planned autumn counteroffensive is definitely not a good idea.” The analyst stressed that, “It makes absolutely no military sense, and it's purely being used to appease some people,” namely, the Zelensky regime’s “Western backers” rather than ordinary Ukrainians.

"It is appeasing them and it is because they're willing to fight to the last Ukrainian as well as Western backers. I do not think that it's an act to appease the majority of Ukrainians. I think the majority of Ukrainians want to see the war ended," Rasmussen said.

When asked to comment on the situation when the use of terms such as “war fatigue” and “Zelensky fatigue” is becoming more mainstream among Western politicians, the analyst said that “a lot of people don't understand ‘Why are we involved with this?'"

“They bought into the propaganda over here, the worst censorship that I've ever seen in my lifetime... But the censorship is unbelievable with media being shut down, with YouTube lines being blocked,” Rasmussen added.

Since the beginning of June, Ukrainian troops have unsuccessfully been trying to break through Russian defensive lines in the Zaporozhye, Yuzhnodonetsk and Artemovsk areas as they use combat units trained by NATO instructors and armed with Western military equipment.

Russian President Vladimir Putin emphasized earlier this month that Kiev's troops had failed to achieve tangible results on any sector of the frontline. He called Kiev’s counteroffensive “a failure, not a stalemate.”

Russia’s Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, for his part, explained that Ukrainian losses in men and materiel in September stand at more than 17,000 and over 2,700, respectively. Since the beginning of the counteroffensive on June 4, Ukraine has reportedly lost at least 81,000 troops.