And This Is News Exactly How?

You do not achieve the breakthrough in first three days, max five-six, let's stretch it for a good measure to fifteen--it is over. Your "offensive" is done, you lost operationally. In 404 case--you lost the war because without NATO's support 404 doesn't exist as a country anymore. Sy Hersh breaks the news, which are not really the news for anyone with half a brain:

US intelligence analysts believe that Ukraine has given up on its counteroffensive against Russia and the only thing prolonging the conflict is the unwillingness of Washington and Kiev to acknowledge their failure, investigative journalist Seymour Hersh has claimed. Writing on Substack on Thursday, the veteran reporter cited an unnamed source, who “spent the early years of his career working against Soviet aggression and spying” as rejecting the Ukrainian narrative about a slow but steady progress of the counteroffensive. “‘It’s all lies,’” the source said, according to Hersh. “‘The war is over. Russia has won. There is no Ukrainian offensive anymore, but the White House and the American media have to keep the lie going.’”This sentiment is shared by many figures in the US intelligence community, and the CIA in particular has been skeptical of Kiev’s claims of a continued push forward, unlike the Pentagon’s Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), he explained.

For those operationally challenged in Biden's Admin, imbeciles from corporate media and Institute For (Not) Study of War, here is the explanation for the middle school kids:

Предполье (передовая полоса обороны) - укреплённая полоса впереди главной полосы обороны или впереди укреплённого района, отдельный элемент современной обороны. Назначение предполья — задержать наступающего противника с целью выигрыша времени и измотать его в период подхода к оборонительной полосе. Условия местности и обстановки могут приводить к самым разнообразным решениям оброняющейся стороны по организации предполья. Глубина предполья может значительно колебаться.

Translation:  Predpolye (forward defense line, forefield) - a fortified zone in front of the main defense line or in front of a fortified area, a separate element of modern defense. The purpose of the forefield is to delay the advancing enemy in order to gain time and exhaust him during the period of approach to the defensive zone. Terrain and situational conditions can lead to a wide variety of decisions by the defending side to organize the forefield. The depth of the forefield can vary significantly.

Everything what third iteration of VSU does is confined to forefield, a grey zone of several kilometers deep, where Pentagon generals for months are trying to approach Russian first line of defense and report about "capturing" some raised to the ground hamlets which have no tactical, let alone operational significance and serve merely to attract masses of VSU troops to be annihilated by long-range fires. 

Now comes this sensitive moment, but do the mental forensic experiment, ask yourself a question--which army will be better at strategic defense, the one which never fought one, namely the US Army, or the one which fought it since hell knows when, including such recent classics as Defense of Moscow, Defense of Leningrad, Rostov-on-Don, Stalingrad and few others, Kursk included? There you go! Anyone who ever studied REAL war and not the BS which is taught in West's military academies, should know that real wars are fought for political objectives other than PR BS on CNN or in NYT. 

So, when Sy's "source" states this:

“The truth is if the Ukrainian army is ordered to continue the offensive, the army would mutiny. The soldiers aren’t willing to die any more, but this doesn’t fit the B.S. that is being authored by the Biden White House,” the source concluded.  

This is not news. Russia can do this as long as it takes, while observing West imploding and the whole thing going to hell in a handbasket. That's the political objective, but try to explain this to Petraeus, Keane or any of the Kagans that in the 21st century war with high-precision and precision-guided munitions produced in massive numbers and their ranges varying anywhere between 4 to 8,500 kilometers, the "captured" territory in and of itself indicates nothing. The term "long range fires", meanwhile, takes on an ominous meaning. But hey, the modern US deserved such generals and strategists like Petraeus and Zelensky. Yep, times of Ike and Bradley are over. At least for now. Send  in the clowns.

Or may be, show must go on? If you know what I mean.