“What we have seen over the past few days is that they continue to try to set the terms,” the senior defense official said in a call with reporters on Monday. “We call it design operations.”
“It looks like they’re trying to learn from the failed lessons of the North, where they didn’t have adequate conservation capabilities in the area where they wanted to operate,” the official said.
The official said the U.S. saw Russia engaging in “heavy artillery,” “command and control enablers,” and “aviation, particularly rotary aviation support,” as part of the 11 new tactical battalion groups deployed to eastern and southern Ukraine.” in the last days.”
Russia is massing troops and poised to capture the southeastern port city of Mariupol. CNN reported Monday that the fate of Mariupol depended on an unknown number of defenders making their last stand at an iron and steel mill.
Fierce fighting was still going on in the city on Monday, according to Petro Andriushchenko, an adviser to the city’s mayor.
Later Monday, Andriy Yermak, head of the Office of the President of Ukraine, said the “second phase of the war” had begun in the eastern Donbass region amid clear signs of an intensified Russian offensive.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy confirmed in a video address on Monday that the battle for Donbass had begun.
“The Russian armed forces have started the battle for Donbass, for which they have been preparing for a long time, and a significant part of the Russian armed forces is focused on this offensive,” Zelenskyy said.
He stressed that Ukrainian forces will continue to fight against a Russian invasion of the region.
“No matter how many Russian soldiers they bring to this area, we will continue to fight and defend, and we will do so on a daily basis. We won’t give up anything that is Ukrainian, but we don’t need anything that isn’t ours,” said Zelenskyy.
“I am grateful to all of our warriors, our soldiers, our heroic cities and communities in the region who are resisting and standing firm,” he said.
Russia’s disjointed — and at times chaotic — operation in northern Ukraine is well documented, and its early military failure largely caught US and Western officials by surprise.
Since Russia launched its attack on Ukraine on February 24, it has bombarded Ukrainian cities with rockets and artillery, destroying homes, hospitals and schools and killing scores of civilians. But its ground invasion has largely stalled and Moscow has failed to capture key cities, including Kyiv, amid fierce resistance from Ukrainians and what senior defense officials have called tactical blunders.
Russia focuses on East and South
The US estimates that Russia has added 11 tactical battalion groups (BTGs) to its forces in the east and south since late last week, according to the senior US defense official, bringing Russia’s total number of BTGs to 76.
“They have expanded their capabilities in Ukraine,” the official said.
The official said all Russian ground forces are currently concentrated in eastern and southern Ukraine, but the US cannot pinpoint how the new BTGs are distributed.
In preparation for a new type of combat on the open plains of southeastern Ukraine right next to Russia, the US is providing Kyiv with the kind of high-powered capabilities that some Biden administration officials saw as too great a risk of escalation just weeks ago.
The new $800 million arms package is the clearest sign yet that the war in Ukraine is shifting — and with it the arms Ukraine will need if it hopes to continue to thwart a Russian military that is turning after its initial failures and took care of it in the first weeks of the war.
The Biden administration said the new package included 11 Mi-17 helicopters originally destined for Afghanistan, 18 155mm howitzer guns and 300 other switchblade drones, as well as radar systems capable of detecting incoming fire track and locate its origin.
This package differs from previous security supports in part because this installment contains more sophisticated and heavier weapons than previous shipments.
A US official told CNN last week that it was on purpose, arguing that the US is changing its own strategy on what it is giving to Ukraine because Russia, which has failed to capture Kyiv, has changed its strategy, to concentrate forces in eastern Ukraine.
“The contours of what they need are very different,” the US official said.
Some of the weapons systems are so complex that the Pentagon has said it must provide training to Ukrainians outside the country, as it was previously envisaged for the Switchblade drones, with the senior defense official saying the howitzer training will be completed “in a year” will begin in the next few days.”
“We will try to create opportunities for a small number of Ukrainians to become familiar with these systems,” Pentagon press secretary John Kirby said at a briefing with reporters last week, “but we don’t think there will be any.” Will be burdensome task or tedious in time or in resources.”
This story has been updated with comments from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
CNN’s Nathan Hodge, Kostan Nechyporenko, Oren Liebermann, Jeremy Herb, and Kaitlan Collins contributed to this report.