Ukraine: Despite Record Amount of Weapons, Kyiv Keeps U.S. in the Dark on War Realities: NYT

Yet the U.S. continues to send billions in aid

Jun 9, 2022

The Pentagon seen from above. American officials told The New York Times that the Pentagon has less information than it would like about Ukraine’s war effort.

You can’t turn on the TV without seeing Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, but despite how vocal he has been about his goal to take back large swaths of his country from Russian forces, Kyiv has been tight-lipped on war realities on the ground and how it will achieve these objectives, according to a new report.

The New York Times, citing current and former U.S. officials, published a report Wednesday that American intelligence agencies have “less information than they would like about Ukraine’s operations and possess a far better picture of Russia’s military.”

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Beth Sanner, a former senior intelligence official, told the paper: “How much do we really know about how Ukraine is doing?”

“Can you find a person who will tell you with confidence how many troops has Ukraine lost, how many pieces of equipment has Ukraine lost?” she asked.

Ukraine Says U.S., UK Needs to Provide MORE Advanced Rocket Systems if it’s Going to Have a Chance

The Trends Journal has pointed out since the beginning of the conflict that it was nearly impossible to find the number of casualties suffered by Ukrainian troops in Google searches. But if you were interested in finding out Russia’s war dead, there were dozens of article links. Zelensky vowed to fight for every inch of his country, but how he plans on doing that — without NATO joining the war — is anybody’s guess.

The Times reported that the U.S. has a better understanding about Russia’s military’s condition than Ukraine’s. Even Avril D. Haines, the director of national intelligence, told the Senate in May: “We have, in fact, more insight, probably, on the Russian side than we do on the Ukrainian side.”

TRENDPOST: Why did the U.S. agree to send Kyiv advanced rocket systems when it did not have a clear picture about the war’s development, and why has the Biden administration been so positive about Ukraine’s chances against Russia?

Stephen Biddle, a professor of international affairs at Columbia University, told the paper, “I’m not sure it’s in the interest of the American public or Ukrainian public to have Ukrainians be upfront about their losses if the result is it strengthens the Russian war effort. But that means we don’t really know both sides of the story.”

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