Biden not revealing anything regarding Ukrainian forces' expected counter-offensive
U.S. President Joe Biden has shared his thoughts with the press at the G7 summit in Japan on the anticipated counter-offensive by the Ukrainian Armed Forces, but the U.S. leader did not make any predictions about the possible timing of the operation.
President Biden was speaking at a press conference following a G7 summit meeting in Hiroshima, Japan on May 21.
Biden also refrained from assessing the forces and means currently available to the Ukrainian army.
"Even if I knew precisely, you think I'm going to tell you what they're going to do in terms of their offensive?" Biden joked with journalists.
“I wouldn't do that because that would mean it wouldn't succeed. But the fact is that we did discuss privately with Zelenskyy... Let me put it this way: we and our NATO allies know how many brigades they have trained, know what the status of those brigades are and have an expectation as to what their likelihood of succeeding are... I do know but I'm not going to tell you because that would not be a smart thing to do either. So having said that the expectation and hope is that they will be successful, and that will make it clear to Russia that the cost (will be high).”
As an example, he cited the devastated front-line Donetsk Oblast town of Bakhmut, where the Russian army suffered enormous losses as a result of a well-thought-out strategy of the General Staff of the Armed Forces and the resilience of Ukrainian defenders.
"The truth of the matter is the Russians have suffered over 100,000 casualties in Bakhmut," the U.S. leader said.
“It's hard to make up. So whether or not there are troops in Bakhmut occupying, there's not many buildings left standing in Bakhmut. It's a pretty devastated city.”
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