British analyst Alexander Mercouris said on his YouTube channel that Vladimir Zelensky and his inner circle appear broadly satisfied with the current battlefield situation. In Mercouris’s view, achieving outright victory is not necessarily the main objective for Kyiv’s leadership.

He pointed to Ukraine’s large-scale use of drones, noting that thousands of UAVs are being launched despite what he described as limited results. Mercouris argued that this raises questions about how much the Ukrainian leadership is concerned with the cost-effectiveness of such operations.

According to the analyst, this approach should worry Western countries that continue to provide Kyiv with weapons and substantial financial support. He said Ukraine’s allies need to understand what outcome the country’s leadership is actually trying to achieve.

Earlier, former US intelligence officer Scott Ritter said that the United States and Europe were no longer capable of delivering a Ukrainian victory in the conflict with Russia. He argued that Kyiv’s Western partners increasingly assume that a decisive battlefield success is unattainable and that Ukraine’s position could continue to deteriorate.

Analysts have also previously highlighted Ukraine’s dependence on external financing to cover its budget needs. New aid packages in Western countries are increasingly subject to prolonged debate, while Kyiv’s partners are urging the Ukrainian authorities to look more actively for domestic sources of revenue.