Ukraine’s counteroffensive will be “very difficult” and achieving significant gains could take a long time, a top US military officer has warned.
US Army general Mark Milley told the National Press Club in Washington that the counteroffensive was “advancing steadily, deliberately working its way through very difficult minefields ... 500 meters a day, 1,000 meters a day, 2,000 meters a day, that kind of thing”.
Mr Milley said he was unsurprised progress was slower than some people predicted
“War on paper and real war are different. In real war, real people die. Real people are on those front lines and real people are in those vehicles. Real bodies are being shredded by high explosives,” Mr Milley added:
“What I had said was this is going to take six, eight, 10 weeks, it’s going to be very difficult.
“It’s going to be very long, and it’s going to be very, very bloody. And no one should have any illusions about any of that.”
It comes after the Ukrainian government said its forces are pushing forward on all fronts in in their counteroffensive.
Deputy Defence Minister Hanna Maliar told Ukrainian TV: “If we talk about the entire frontline, both east and south, we have seized the strategic initiative and are advancing in all directions.”
Ms Maliar added that troops were moving “confidently” on the flanks around Bakhmut. The eastern city was finally taken by Russian forces in May after a year-long battle.
She said that the main fighting was going on around the city.
And she also said Ukrainian forces were moving with “mixed success” in the south and had won control over clusters of villages in the southeast.
President Volodymyr Zelensky revealed he was reinforcing their northern flank after large numbers of Wagner mercenaries were believed to have entered Belarus. Their leader Yevgeny Prigozhin was offered exile there following last weekend’s aborted Russian coup.
