Pentagon believes that Ukraine is unlikely to recapture Crimea in near future

 According to Politico, four senior Pentagon officials shared this opinion at a secret briefing.

"It’s unclear what led the briefers to that assessment. But the clear indication, as relayed by three people with direct knowledge of Thursday’s briefing’s contents, was that the Pentagon doesn’t believe Ukraine has — or soon will have — the ability to force Russian troops out of the peninsula Moscow seized nearly a decade ago," the outlet writes.

A fourth official said that the briefing was ambiguous, but the point remains that Ukraine's victory in an offensive to regain the illegally annexed territory is not guaranteed.

According to the outlet, the speakers included Laura Cooper, deputy assistant secretary of defense for Russia, Ukraine and Eurasia, and Lt. Gen. Douglas Sims, director of operations on the Joint Staff.

“We’re not going to comment on closed-door classified briefings nor will we talk about hypotheticals or speculate on potential future operations,” said Pentagon spokeswoman Sabrina Singh.

"In terms of Ukraine’s ability to fight and take back sovereign territory, their remarkable performance in repulsing Russian aggression and continued adaptability on the battlefield speaks for itself," she added.

• Kyrylo Budanov, head of the Defense Intelligence of Ukraine, believes that the Ukrainian Armed Forces are able to recapture the Russian-occupied Crimea by the summer of this year.

• Military expert, colonel of Ukrainian Armed Forces in reserve, Roman Svitan, also says that Ukrainian Armed Forces will enter Crimea by summer of this year.

• Serhiy Zgurets, director of the information and consulting company Defense Express, believes that liberation of Crimea will be organized in several stages.

• Petro Chernyk, military expert, believes that it is absolutely possible to liberate Crimea, but it is impossible to achieve this without weapons of the allies