‘Real War is Brutal’: US Leaders Address Stalled Ukrainian Counteroffensive, Pledge More Weapons

Ukrainian servicemen ride on a tank not far from the front line in the Kharkiv region amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine, on July 6, 2023. Sergey Bobok/AFP via Getty Images

The United States will continue to supply Ukraine with billions of dollars in munitions and equipment as the eastern European nation’s counteroffensive against Russia stalls.

U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said that Ukraine was making progress in its operations against Russia in eastern Ukraine. Still, he acknowledged that Ukraine’s advances were slow going during a July 18 meeting of the Ukraine Contact Group, a 54-nation alliance providing Ukraine with weapons for its self-defense.

“As I’ve said, Ukraine’s fight for freedom is a marathon, not a sprint,” Mr. Austin said in an address to the group. “We have supplied Ukraine with critical capabilities such as air defense and ammunition. And we’re not going to let up.

“So make no mistake, we will continue to move Heaven and Earth to get Ukraine what it needs.”

The group’s meeting follows just a day behind a phone conversation between Mr. Austin and Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov, which focused on Ukraine’s apparently stalled efforts to push back against the poorly-manned Russian lines, according to a readout of the call.

Massive Minefields Halt Ukraine’s Push

Speaking to the press after the Contact Group’s meeting, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley said that some sputtering in Ukraine’s advance against Russian forces was expected.

“Real war is not predictable,” Gen. Milley said. “It is filled with fear and fog and friction. Real war is brutal.

“That’s the difference between war on paper and real war.”

Gen. Milley added that much of the slowdown was due to Russia’s creation of expansive minefields throughout eastern Ukraine, which continue to kill Ukrainian service members and destroy vehicles.

Those minefields, he added, were often accompanied by Russian hunter-killer teams, which frequently ambushed Ukrainian forces while they made the slow progress of clearing a path through the minefields.

“They’ve had a lot of time to prepare,” Gen. Milley said of the Russian fortifications.

“[The Ukrainians are] working their way through it. It is far from a failure… there’s a lot of fighting left to go.”

To that end, Gen. Milley said that this 14th meeting of the Ukraine Contact Group was vital to ensuring the continued existence, much less stability, of the international order.

“Russia’s war of choice, Russia’s war of aggression, is a frontal assault on the rules-based international order that has prevented great power war for the last eight consecutive decades,” Gen. Milley said.

Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin (L) and Army General Mark Milley hold a press briefing about the U.S. military drawdown in Afghanistan, at the Pentagon in Washington on Sept. 1, 2021. Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images

US Ammunition Stores Dwindle

While Ukraine has faced hardships in the counteroffensive against Russia, the embattled nation’s constant calls for more ammunition and equipment are causing the United States and its allies to face their own difficulties.

In the more than 500 days since Russia began its attempted conquest of Ukraine, the United States has sent well over $75 billion in aid to Ukraine, including more than $47 billion in military aid.

Now, officials say, the United States has depleted its own stores of critical munitions so severely that it would likely be incapable of fighting a major war.

Army Secretary Christine Wormuth has said that U.S. munitions production capacity is pushed to the “absolute edge.”

Gen. Milley has said that the nation “has a long ways to go” to replenish its sorely depleted stockpiles.

One unnamed Pentagon official allegedly told The Wall Street Journal that the nation’s stores of critical artillery rounds were “uncomfortably low” as early as August 2022.

As such, Tuesday’s meeting focused predominantly on Ukraine’s air defense and ammunition requirements and sought to carve out a realistic path for supplying Ukraine in the long term, given low supplies of key munitions like the 155 mm artillery round.

To that end, Mr. Austin told reporters that the war was in a “critical time” and Ukraine had an “urgent need for ammunition.”

The United States, he added, would find a way to ensure Ukraine received it.

“Ukraine chose to fight back, and Ukrainian armed forces have defended their country with courage and skill,” Mr. Austin said.

“We are determined to support Ukraine’s fight for freedom for as long as it takes.”

Similarly, Mr. Austin said that it was only natural that Ukraine would seek every weapon possible from its international partners, given that the nation was fighting for its continued existence.

As such, he said, the United States and its allies would continue to meet the demand, one way or another.

“Ukraine is in a fight, and we have to remember that when you’re in a fight, you want everything you can get your hands on, so that’s to be expected,” Mr. Austin said.

“The United States will stand with Ukraine for as long as it takes. And so will this Contact Group. And together, we will continue to move Heaven and Earth to let Ukraine defend its freedom.”