Ukraine facing tough battle to overcome formidable Russian defenses, Pentagon admits
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Ukrainian forces are facing a tough fight during its summer counter-offensive, as invading Russian forces had had time to build up formidable defensive lines in the occupied parts of southern and eastern Ukraine, a Pentagon official has said.
Pentagon Press Secretary Air Force
Brigadier General Pat Ryder at a briefing on Aug. 3 also said blame for the war
lay with Moscow.
"The problem is that Russia invaded
its democratic neighbor unprovoked and has killed thousands and thousands of
innocent people,” Ryder said.
He said the Russian army had had time to
build defenses in the occupied territories, Ukraine is entering into battle
against them, and it would be a difficult battle.
“And so there are no illusions that this —
this fight that Ukraine finds itself in is an easy fight. And so again,
Russia has had time to build up the defenses along their occupied areas and
Ukraine is taking the fight to them and it's going to be a tough fight.”
But, you know, I would just go back and
highlight, first of all, we've been training the Ukrainians since 2014,” Ryder
said.
“Even after the war started, after Russia's
invasion, the international community and United States have continued to help
train Ukrainian forces. We've literally met almost every single month
since the invasion with international allies and partners, over 50, to
highlight Ukraine's needs and rush aid, security assistance to them.”
Ryder said that is why the United States is
confident that the Ukrainian Armed Forces have significant combat capability
and that they intend to use it whenever and wherever they choose to defend
their country and regain sovereign territory.
Counter-offensive of the Armed Forces: Latest news
Earlier, U.S. newspaper the New York Times
reported that a new phase of Ukraine's counter-offensive had begun, the main
blow of which fell on the southeast, where the fighters of the Armed Forces of
Ukraine are gradually advancing through minefields and while under attack by
Russian aircraft.
According to the UK newspaper the Financial
Times, Ukraine changed tactics after the "chaos" of the beginning of
the counter-offensive, now its armed forces have focused their attention on
striking Russian defensive positions with heavy artillery, and are achieving
tangible results.
The day before, the Ukrainian military’s
General Staff announced that the Armed Forces of Ukraine are preventing the
Russians from recapturing lost positions northeast of the village of Robotyne,
20 kilometers from the key strategic town of Tokmak, and are also having
success near Staromayorskyi.
The fighting in the area continues, the
General Staff said.
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