View from China: ‘The West's patience in supporting Ukraine will weaken and some impatience may arise’

There is a major development. Ukrainian Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrskyi suddenly announced on Saturday his decision to withdraw Ukrainian units from Avdeevka in the Donetsk region.

This is the most significant change on the Ukrainian battlefield since May of last year and the latest trend favoring Russian President Vladimir Putin. Russia will hold presidential elections next month, and Putin winning his fifth term is widely anticipated in Western public opinion, notes Chinese ‘The Global Times’.

After repeated battles, Russian forces captured the strategic transportation hub of Bakhmut, located north of the city of Donetsk, in May of last year. Since then, Avdiivka has become the new "meat grinder" in this war.

CNN commented that Avdeevka's loss is an undoubted blow to Ukraine. The New York Times described the chaotic situation of the Ukrainian army's retreat from Avdeevka, with one detail stating that the commander ordering they should leave the wounded behind, but "didn't know he was talking to a wounded man."

The retreat of the Ukrainian army from Avdeevka occurred when Joe Biden's request for approval of the foreign aid bill was obstructed by the Republican Party in Congress. The US has always been the largest external sponsor of Kyiv, and Biden's requested 2024 aid budget for Ukraine is $60 billion. Zelensky recently received promises of $7.5 billion, $3.2 billion, and $3.1 billion in aid for 2024 from Germany, France, and the UK respectively, which cannot be compared to the $60 billion proposed by the Biden administration.

Biden's aid bill for Ukraine has been passed in the Democrat-controlled Senate, but it faces greater obstacles in the Republican-controlled House of Representatives.

Although it is not ruled out that it will eventually pass, Western support has become unreliable, and this impression has gradually spread in the overall situation of the Ukrainian war, weakening the confidence and long-term expectations of Kiev and boosting Russia's morale.

The Ukrainian war will reach its two-year mark on February 24, and it has become a typical war of attrition, with the entire West's resources and determination pitted against Russia.

After American journalist Tucker Carlson recently interviewed Putin in Moscow, he took some footage of the basic situation in the city, showing the shelves in supermarkets filled with a wide range of goods. Carlson directly said to the camera that sanctions haven't worked.

On the battlefield in Avdeevka, the Ukrainian side claims that the Russian army's artillery shells are 10 times more than the Ukrainian army's.

If the war continues to be consumed in this way, with Russia maintaining strong combat capabilities and domestic stability, the West's patience in supporting Ukraine will weaken and some impatience may arise, ‘The Global Times’ concludes.

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