Pentagon says Russia's war against Ukraine heads to dead end – Bloomberg

The Pentagon's Defense Intelligence Agency believes that Ukraine and Russia do not have sufficient military resources to conduct major offensive operations, which may indicate that both sides are heading towards a stalemate.

As reported by Bloomberg, Ukraine still does not have enough ammunition to match Russia's ability to fire about 10,000 artillery rounds a day, even after the US Congress unblocked new military aid in April.

The Pentagon also notes that the Ukrainian Armed Forces are still capable of conducting defensive operations but will not be able to launch a large-scale counteroffensive for at least six months.

At the same time, Russia has adopted a strategy of exhausting [Ukraine – ed.] and will be able to maintain the buffer zone seized by its troops, but also does not have enough forces "to threaten a deeper advance into Ukrainian-held territory, such as Kharkiv city."

Bloomberg notes that the Defence Intelligence Agency's assessments are contained in the latest quarterly report on US aid to Ukraine.

This report covers the three-month period ending 30 June, after Congress passed the latest US$61 billion aid package for Ukraine.

Bloomberg highlights that since then, Ukraine has launched a surprise incursion into Russia's Kursk Oblast and received and started using F-16 fighter jets.

The report also noted the successful use of ATACMS missiles provided by the United States. In particular, one such missile attack on Sevastopol on 18 May resulted in the sinking of a corvette. Ukraine has also used these missiles to hit Russian air defence systems in occupied Crimea, destroying several state-of-the-art S-400 systems.

These strikes reportedly forced Russian forces to reinforce Crimea's air defence systems with S-500 systems, which have not yet been fully demonstrated in Ukraine.

The Pentagon believes that this indicates that Russia is trying to provide adequate air defence for Crimea.

Earlier, the United States recorded the redeployment of some Russian forces to the territory of Kursk Oblast.

The United States officially refuses to assess the events in Kursk Oblast, but Congress calls the Ukrainian defence forces' operation "historic" and one that could shift the war's course.