Despite being bombarded by Russia for more than three weeks, Ukraine has begun to shift battlefield momentum in some areas in order to reclaim ground from invading forces, according to a Pentagon spokesman.
Since sending tens of thousands of troops into its eastern European neighbour on February 24, Moscow’s indiscriminate threats have devastated several Ukrainian cities, with civilian fatalities skyrocketing and more than ten million people fleeing their homes.
Many analysts believe there is no clear way out of the conflict. Despite this, Ukraine’s resistance has been unexpectedly fierce, and the Ukrainians are now “in places and at times going on the offensive,” according to Pentagon spokesman John Kirby.
“They are going after Russians and pushing them out of places where Russians have previously been,” he said, referring specifically to Mykolaiv in the south. “We’ve seen an increase in this over the last few days,” Kirby said he couldn’t confirm reports from Ukrainian officials that they had retaken at least one town and were planning to take more in the coming days.
However, it would be “consistent with the type of fighting and capabilities we’ve seen the Ukrainians use,” he said. In terms of the Russians, he agreed with Western analysts who have stated that the invading forces have become thwarted. “They’ve run out of fuel. They’re about to run out of food. They are not integrating their operations in the way that you would expect a modern military to do,” Kirby stated.
He cited communication issues between air and ground forces, and how the Russians have had to resort to using cellphones in some cases. He described the Russians as “frustrated” and “stalled,” citing their failure to take control of population centres beyond two areas around Kherson and Melitopol in the south.
