The Russian military has retreated more than 30 km east of Kyiv in the past 24 hours and has begun setting up defensive positions on several Ukrainian fronts, a senior Pentagon official said on Wednesday.
“The Ukrainians managed to push the Russians back 55 kilometers east and northeast of Kyiv,” the unidentified official said, while the Pentagon estimated on Tuesday that Russian forces were 15-20 kilometers from the center of the capital.
We noticed that (the Russians)
Dig on themselves and form defensive positions”
he added. “It’s not that they are not moving forward, it is that they are not trying to move forward. They are taking defensive positions.”
Russian forces were also stranded 10 kilometers from the center of Chernihiv, northeast of Kyiv, according to Pentagon estimates. “Here they lost territory, and they are moving in the opposite direction, but not for long,” the statement noted.
In Kharkiv (east), where the fighting is still fierce, Russian troops are still 15-20 kilometers from the city center and face “very tough” resistance from the Ukrainians.
According to a US Defense Department official, the Russian military now appears to be prioritizing the pro-Russian breakaway region of Luhansk and Donetsk. “More energy is being invested in the Luhansk and Donetsk regions, especially in the Luhansk region,” he added.
“We believe that they are trying to immobilize the Ukrainian forces that have been deployed along the front line with the separatist regions since 2014, so that they are not deployed elsewhere,” he explained.
The US Department of Defense indicated in the south.
The Russian Navy uses the port of Berdyansk in the Sea of Azov for refueling.
The last settlement is one of the few towns that the Russian forces were able to capture on the 28th day of the offensive.
However, the Pentagon did not notice any change around the port city of Odessa. The US official said that even if more missiles were launched from Russian warships in the direction of Odessa earlier this week, they did not happen again on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Opening photo: MTI / AP / Felipe Dana
