Historian: Ukraine can't win with hands tied by Western limits

"At a private dinner during the Munich Security Conference, one of the European leaders asked me what it means when they say that Ukraine is not losing. And I replied that it means Ukraine is losing," he said.

"It's like in football: no one tells the team that our goal is not to lose, because that's what losing is. You can't win a war with one hand tied behind your back, and that's how Ukraine is fighting now."

Ash pointed out that two key influential figures in world politics, US President Joe Biden and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, are fearful and reluctant to escalate the situation and are instead seeking a compromise solution.

"And when the two leaders of the largest donors of economic and military assistance to Ukraine take this position, you have a problem. We all have a problem."

On July 25, Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski said that Western allies would eventually allow Ukraine to strike deep into Russia with their long-range weapons.

On July 11, The New York Times wrote that the slow delivery of military aid packages by the allies would not allow Ukraine to launch a large-scale counteroffensive against Russia or retake significant amounts of territory this year.

Earlier, on July 4, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that he did not consider the situation on the frontlines a “stalemate,” but stressed that Ukraine’s counteroffensive and success on the battlefield depended on the supply of Western weapons.