Admiral Rob Bauer, Chairman of the NATO Military Committee, has said that the West was "too optimistic" about the course of Russia's war against Ukraine in 2023.

As reported by Financial Times, Bauer said the West believed that "if we give the Ukrainians the ammunition and training they need, they will win."

Now, he added that "we have to be careful not to be overly pessimistic in 2024."

"The sheer fact that Ukraine is still a sovereign state, and that the Ukrainians have taken back 50% of what the Russians took in 2022, is remarkable," Bauer added.

Bloomberg previously reported that NATO members are now privately talking about potential Russian aggression against the bloc as a threat that requires an immediate response, as they increasingly doubt that the United States will retain its traditional role of defending Europe as part of the Alliance.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, in a speech at the Munich Security Conference on 17 February, reiterated his call for Western powers to increase military assistance to Ukraine, noting that the success of Ukrainian forces is limited by the fitness-for-purpose and range of weapons and that "the situation in Avdiivka confirms this."

He also said that he was not considering alternatives to US assistance, as he expects the political issues to be resolved and Washington to remain a strategic ally.