The US confirmed Ukraine’s progress in its counter-offensive against the Russian attackers. “The Ukrainians are moving forward steadily and purposefully,” Chief of Staff Mark Milley at the US Department of Defense said today after an online meeting of Ukraine’s international contact group for military aid coordination. “This is anything but a failure,” he added after a relevant question.
“It’s going to be long, it’s going to be hard, it’s going to be bloody”
It is too early to reach such a conclusion. “I think there’s still a lot of fighting ahead and I stand by what we said before: it’s going to be long, it’s going to be hard, it’s going to be bloody.”
Milley cited the mined area as the reason for the slow advance. The Ukrainian armed forces “slowly” and “deliberately” cleared their way through the minefields, which currently pose a particularly serious threat. “The losses suffered by the Ukrainians in this offensive are not so much due to the strength of the Russian air force as to the minefields,” he said.
US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin assured that the allies of the country attacked by Russia would not give up their support for Ukraine. “Our work continues and we will do everything we can to ensure that Ukrainians succeed.”