Russian forces have made incremental progress in their efforts to take the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv, according to a senior U.S. defense official.
The official, who spoke to reporters on Thursday, said the Pentagon has assessed that Russian troops have moved about three miles closer to the city center in the past day, after essentially being stalled for multiple days.
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“We see Russian forces continue to advance their troops, they’re really along two sort of parallel lines there, and we assess that the northernmost of those two lines, the closest line has reached about 40 kilometers east of Kyiv,” the official said. “You’re starting to see a little bit of that happening in just the last 24 [hours] as they begin to creep a little closer towards Kyiv from the northwest.”
In referencing those two axes, the official said, “The one that’s to the south of the two, which kind of emanated out of Sumi, we also assess that some of [the Russian forces] might have reached approximately 40 kilometers from Kyiv.”
Russian forces have sought to “encircle and surround” various cities. However, they “haven’t made the same amount of progress toward the capital city as they have made on” other cities, in part due to that it’s “a much bigger city, it’s more populous,” the official said.
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The town of Chernihiv, which is close to Kyiv, is “now isolated,” the official said, adding the Pentagon believes Russian forces have launched roughly 775 missiles since the start of their invasion two weeks ago.
In recent days, the defense official who briefs reporters daily, said the Russian forces trying to get into Kyiv had “stalled” and were surprised by the success of the Ukrainian military. However, they also faced issues of their own. Russia dealt with “logistics and sustainment challenges, challenges that we don’t believe they have fully anticipated,” Pentagon spokesperson John Kirby said last week.
