The United States is not overly optimistic about Ukraine's attempts to cut off Russia's land bridge from its territory to the Crimean Peninsula.

Ukrainian forces are attempting to push from the town of Robotyne south toward the strategic city of Melitopol, where they hope to end Russia's convenient ability to move military personnel and equipment from the peninsula, which it annexed in 2014, to other occupied territories in southern Ukraine.

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The U.S. does not believe Ukraine’s counteroffensive will result in it retaking Melitopol, according to an intelligence community assessment reported on by the Washington Post. It noted that Department of Defense officials recommended more than once that Ukraine put a large number of troops to push through a single point in Russia’s defensive line, though it opted to rely on smaller units to push forward across various areas after incurring significant casualties in the opening of the counteroffensive.

"So I'm not going to speak to intelligence reports. I will say that over the course of the past two years, there have been a lot of analyses of how this war would unfold, coming from a lot of quarters," national security adviser Jake Sullivan said on Friday regarding the assessment.

"What we have said, from multiple podiums in multiple briefings, remains the same, which is we're doing everything we can to support Ukraine and its counteroffensive," Sullivan added. "We're not going to handicap the outcome. We're not going to predict what's going to happen because this war has been inherently unpredictable. And that's all I can say today other than I believe and have confidence in the capacity and especially the bravery of Ukrainian fighters to continue to make progress on the battlefield."

Russia's forces have heavily mined the territory it controls with anti-personnel mines, which has hampered Ukraine's ability to push forward.

"So as far as the counteroffensive, nothing ever goes as well as you had hoped it had … if we could do everything perfectly," Gen. James B. Hecker, U.S. Air Forces Europe/Africa commander, said on Friday during a Defense Writers Group event. "So it started off, you know, a little slow. We’ve seen it picked up slightly since then. But you've got to remember they put mines everywhere. Like in a square meter, they're finding five and six mines, so it's very slow to back them up. So it's definite progress, but it’s slow progress. And, of course, all of us would like fast progress. But in a situation like this, this heavily defended and fortified, it's very difficult."

Simultaneously, the Institute for the Study of War, which releases daily updates on battleground developments, noted on Thursday that “Vostok” Battalion Commander Alexander Khodakovsky said Russia will not be able to topple Ukraine’s military in the near future, nor will it easily occupy additional Ukrainian cities.

Ukrainian leaders have repeatedly said they would not agree to a diplomatic ending to the war if it includes giving up territory, even as a top NATO official suggested such a possibility earlier this week.

"Our goal is victory, victory in the form of the liberation of our territories within [Ukraine's] borders of 1991. And we don't care how long it takes," Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba told AFP this week. "As long as the Ukrainian people share this goal, the Ukrainian government will move hand in hand with its own people."

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The Biden administration, while giving Ukraine more than $43 billion worth of military assistance, has faced accusations of not providing Ukraine with the weapons it needs to win back occupied territory. President Joe Biden agreed to give Ukraine Abrams tanks, the Patriot missile defense system, and fourth-generation fighter aircraft after months of declining to fulfill such requests.

The administration remains steadfast in its refusal to provide Ukraine with Army Tactical Missile System, which is a long-range tactical ballistic missile, because it doesn't want to enable Ukraine's ability to launch attacks against Russian territory. Kuleba reiterated this request during a conversation with Secretary of State Antony Blinken earlier this month.