A senior Pentagon official described Russia’s progress at consolidating its forces in the Donbas as “minimal at best,” amid fresh reports that a renewed offensive in Ukraine’s south and east is failing to produce quick results.
U.S. and NATO officials are watching closely as Russian forces prepare for what could be the decisive campaign of the invasion, after an earlier attempt to seize Kyiv and other major Ukrainian cities failed badly.
“They’ll move in and declare victory, then withdraw their troops only to let the Ukrainians take it back,” the Defense Department official told reporters at the Pentagon. “There’s a lot of back and forth [with] minimal progress at best.”
Low morale is on the rise among a number of the Russian soldiers who have taken part in what they believed would be a quick military campaign, only to see it drag on for months with no clear end in sight, officials said.
“They are still suffering from poor command and control [and] less than ideal logistics,” the Defense Department official said. “They still have not solved all their logistics problems.”
While Russian troops are conducting some offensive operations in Ukraine, U.S. officials described their pace as “anemic,” saying they seem to be risk-averse, both in the air and on the ground.
“That’s not just because of Russian planning or logistics,” the Defense Department official said. “A lot of it is because the Ukrainians have been resisting quite well.”
At least 70 of the 155 mm U.S. towed M-777 howitzers that had been destined for Europe are now in the hands of Ukrainian troops. Meanwhile, Mariupol, a key port city on the Sea of Azov, continues to be subjected to ruthless bombings but has yet to be cleared of Ukrainian forces.