According to Bolton, "Ukraine’s offensive failures and Russia’s defensive successes share a common cause: the slow, faltering, nonstrategic supply of military assistance by the West, TASS reported.
The serial debates over whether to supply this or that weapons system, the perpetual fear that Russia will escalate to war against the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, and occasional Kremlin nuclear saber-rattling have instilled a paralyzing caution in Western capitals. Although the UK under Boris Johnson wasn’t deterred, NATO has seemed unwilling to fulfill its commitment to restore Ukraine’s full sovereignty and territorial integrity."
"This hesitancy is a product of successful deterrence by the Kremlin, not American strategic necessity," he noted. "Far from being inevitable, the Ukrainians’ inability to achieve major advances is the natural result of a US strategy aimed only at staving off Russian conquest," according to him.
As for sanctions, Bolton believes, "The West - particularly Washington - also needs to rethink sanctions policy radically. Theories about price caps on Russian oil have failed, and Western sanctions generally remain piecemeal and seriously underenforced.
These defects aren’t confined to the Ukraine conflict and should prompt NATO institutionally to review how it conducts enforcement. Proclaiming sanctions is great PR, but enforcement is hard, tedious and necessarily done clandestinely where possible. The US and its allies need a massive overhaul and upgrade of our sanction-enforcement instruments, procedures and personnel."
According to the Russian Defense Ministry, the Ukrainian army has been making fruitless offensive attempts since June 4. According to the ministry, the Armed Forces of Ukraine lost around 43,000 personnel and 5,000 weapons, including 26 planes and 25 Leopard tanks, in two months. Russian President Vladimir Putin emphasized that Ukrainian troops are not succeeding in any direction.