Ukraine counteroffensive may take months and there is ‘no guarantee it will win war’, warn western officials

We have been trying to tamp down expectations, as it is very difficult to predict,” says Jim Townsend, a former US Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defence for European and Nato Policy.

“We know from the past that when you have an attacking army going up against this entrenched force, with lots of mines, it is going to take a long time. And it’s going to be agony watching the military trying to breach defences.”

Mr Townsend, a senior adviser at the Atlantic Council, says this will add to the pressure, as politicians and the media expect to see results fast. “We can’t have unrealistic expectations. The only experience people have of this is what the Russians did last year, and what the Ukrainians did last year in the summer. And the frames of reference are not necessarily going to be consistent with what we might see here,” he says.

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