The White House has not viewed a recent slowing of Russia’s military operations in Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region as a stalling of Moscow’s war effort, but rather as part of a strategic effort to regroup amid smaller tit-for-tat clashes between the two sides.
“I don’t believe we would consider what’s going on in the Donbas as stalled,” National Security Council Strategic Communications Coordinator John Kirby told reporters Friday. “There’s a lot of activity and all of it’s happening in real time.”
Describing the latest tide of the conflict, Kirby said, “It could be true that, in some places in eastern and southern Ukraine, the Russians appear to be taking a knee, refreshing, refitting, moving troops, and in other places in the east and south, there are actual battles going on between Russia and Ukrainian forces.”
And while he said both sides have been observed making incremental gains and losses in recent days, this was not comparable to larger battles seen earlier in the war.
“What we’re seeing now are smaller engagements with smaller units and smaller achievements, at least from a geographic perspective at this time,” Kirby said. “But I would not classify it as stalled.”
Russian Ministry of Defense
As Russia’s war in Ukraine passed the five-month mark, confrontation between the two sides has continued along multiple lines of contact.
Ukrainian forces have claimed to have halted Russia’s momentum through the use of M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket System, or HIMARS, supplied by the United States. The weapon has allowed Ukrainian troops to extend their firing range to some 50 miles behind enemy lines, where they have counted strikes against Russian logistics centers and supply lines among other vital targets.
But the Russian military has also sought to maintain pressure on Ukraine, claiming to have destroyed up to 100 HIMARS in recent days, while also targeting anti-aircraft systems and the southern port city of Odessa, a critical hub for the deal signed last week between Moscow and Kyiv under the auspices of Turkey and the United Nations to resume global grain shipments.
Much of the Ukrainian military’s focus in recent weeks has been on staging a counteroffensive in the south, particularly to retake the city of Kherson. Just as the ambitious maneuver began Thursday, Kirill Stremousov, deputy head of the region’s pro-Russia civil-military administration, announced a referendum to be held soon to make Kherson a part of Russia.
A similar vote was held in nearby Crimea after unrest first broke out in Ukraine in 2014 as an uprising in Kyiv brought to power a pro-West government. The peninsula was ultimately annexed after Russian forces deployed there and pro-Moscow separatists launched an insurgency for Donbas, where Russia has recognized the independence of the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics.
Crimea’s status remains internationally disputed, and only Syria and North Korea have so far joined Russia in recognizing the two rebel republics in the Donbas. Moscow has continued to defend its war effort, however, accusing Kyiv of threatening Russia’s national security through Ukraine’s bid to join the U.S.-led NATO Western military alliance.
This is a developing news story. More information will be added as it becomes available.
U.S. Says Russia Not ‘Stalled’ in East Ukraine, but ‘Refitting, Refreshing’
Source: Gwapo Pinoys PH
0 comments:
Post a Comment