White House sees new Ukrainian progress in counteroffensive towards Russia

Ukrainian forces have made “notable progress” within the southern Zaporizhzhya area within the final 72 hours as their counteroffensive, now in its third month, picks up momentum towards Russian defensive traces, the White House mentioned Friday.

Private analysts have mentioned Ukraine’s much-touted spring offensive has made solely modest features up to now, particularly in comparison with the main advances Kyiv’s forces made final fall in reclaiming a number of main cities within the nation’s occupied south and east. Even Ukrainian authorities officers have mentioned that Russian troops used the winter months to arrange formidable defensive traces which have confirmed exhausting to crack.

“They have achieved some success against the second line of Russian defenses,” National Security Council spokesman John Kirby informed reporters Friday. “They still have some tough fighting ahead of them as they try to push further south.”

He warned that Moscow might react to Ukraine’s advances by launching its personal counterattack, calling such a transfer “not beyond the realm of possibility.”

“We’re making sure that Ukraine has everything they need, not only to keep the progress going but to be able to react positively and effectively against any Russian counter-efforts to move against them,” Mr. Kirby mentioned. “We’ve done an awful lot in the last year and a half to ensure that they’re successful and to keep that success going.”

The Institute for the Study of War suppose tank additionally famous that Kyiv has just lately achieved “unspecified success” on the battlefield close to Bakhmut and Melitopol, within the western  Zaporizhzhya area. Ukraine’s chief of artillery mentioned they’ve achieved parity with Russia in counter-battery capabilities. 

“NATO-provided artillery systems with ranges of [20 to 25 miles] allow Ukrainian forces to destroy Russian artillery systems and force Russian forces to move their artillery further from the frontline,” the ISW mentioned this week.

Mr. Kirby addressed the customarily nameless criticism within the press of Ukraine’s sluggish however regular tempo towards the closely fortified Russian defenses, calling it “frankly, not helpful to the overall effort.”

“You can’t deny that they have made progress. Now, it has been slow in some areas — slower than they themselves have said they’d like to go,” he mentioned. “But they’ve been preventing each single day, bravely and courageously, and we’ve got been making an attempt to get them what they want.

Ukrainian officers are additionally more and more pissed off by the rising criticism of their progress on the battlefield. On Thursday, Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba mentioned the nay-sayers have been “spitting in the face of Ukrainian soldiers.”