Bloomberg: Ukraine fears that Russian troops will break through its defenses by summer. Putin still wants to take over Kyiv

Officials in Ukraine fear that Russian troops could break through the defenses of the Ukrainian Armed Forces by the summer of 2024 if the West does not increase supplies of ammunition to Kyiv. This was reported by Bloomberg, citing a source familiar with the plans of the Ukrainian authorities.

The pessimism of Kyiv and its allies, the agency notes, has been growing for several weeks as Russian troops seize the initiative on the front line. The loss of Avdiivka and several nearby villages heightens fears that the defense may fail. The losses should serve as a wake-up call to Ukraine's allies, a European official told reporters.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has not abandoned his original goal of capturing major Ukrainian cities, including Kyiv and Odessa, according to Ukrainian intelligence assessments. In the event of the occupation of Odessa, Russia will cut off grain exports from Ukraine and will gain access to Transnistria, which has already asked Moscow for political support in the confrontation with the Moldovan authorities.

Depending on the results of the current military campaign, the agency writes, Russia will decide whether to continue a slow and steady offensive or accumulate resources for a larger strike to break through Ukrainian lines this summer, a source close to the Ukrainian leadership said.

Bloomberg adds that after two years of war that has exhausted Russian forces, a large-scale offensive remains a challenge for the Kremlin.

• At the beginning of a full-scale war, Russia tried to take control of Kyiv, Kharkov, and also advance to Odessa, but was defeated. In the first weeks of the invasion, Russia gathered 12 times more forces near Kiev than the Ukrainian Armed Forces had, but withdrew its troops at the end of March 2022, calling it a “gesture of goodwill.” After the retreat of Russian troops, the bodies of hundreds of civilians who died during the Russian occupation were discovered in the liberated territories of Ukraine.
• According to a study by Meduza and Mediazona, published on the second anniversary of the war, from February 24, 2022 to the end of 2023, 75 thousand Russian military personnel died.