US Says Ukraine Already Has Resources To Reclaim Territory From Russia; UK Thinks Otherwise

The United States believes Ukraine already has enough resources to use in its anticipated counteroffensive to retake territories from Russian forces, but the United Kingdom believes otherwise.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Tuesday said Washington believes Ukraine now has the training and weapons it needs to retake territories occupied by Russia since it invaded the country in February 2022.

"They have in place what they need to continue to be successful in regaining territory that was seized by force by Russia over the last 14 months," he said during a joint news conference with U.K. Foreign Secretary James Cleverly. "It's not only the weapons; it's the training. It's making sure that the Ukrainians can maintain the systems that we provide them, and it's important, of course, that they have the right plans, again, to be successful."

His comments, however, were in stark contrast to those made by Cleverly, who said Ukraine will unlikely see a decisive breakthrough when they launch their much-anticipated spring counteroffensive.

"This is the real world. This is not a Hollywood movie," Cleverly said. "I hope and expect they will do very, very well, because whenever I've seen the Ukrainians, they have outperformed expectations."

Regardless of their expectations for the counteroffensive, both Blinken and Cleverly said they are committed to continuing to support Ukraine amid its war against Russia. In fact, the U.S. announced a new $1.2 billion aid package for Ukraine on Tuesday with the aim of bolstering Kyiv's air defenses and sustaining their artillery ammunition needs.

The fresh military aid package will include 155mm artillery rounds, air defense systems and munitions and drone ammunition. The package will also give Kyiv equipment that would help "integrate Western air defense launchers, missiles and radars" with the existing systems in Ukraine. The U.S. previously committed M1A1 Abrams tanks and M2 Bradley infantry fighting vehicles to Ukraine.

The U.S. has committed at least $37.6 billion in military aid to Ukraine since the beginning of the Biden administration and $36.9 billion since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine last year.