The Russian military has increased its activity in the Black Sea, according to a U.S. senior defense official.
“We have seen some increased naval activity in the northern Black Sea,” the official told reporters Monday morning, noting that Russia has “a little bit more than a dozen warships” in the area. Despite the increased activity, the official said it is not clear whether an amphibious assault on Odesa, a city along the southern coast of Ukraine along the Black Sea, is “imminent.”
The official said Russian forces have “largely stalled across the country” on Friday and that not much changed between then and Monday.
Russian forces have launched more than 1,100 missiles since the start of their invasion, which began three and a half weeks ago. They have not made the progress they expected, and they remain on the outskirts of most cities within Ukraine.
RUSSIAN FORCES STALLED 15 MILES OUTSIDE KYIV AS SHELLING OF THE CITY CONTINUES: US INTELLIGENCE
“They haven’t achieved anything in terms of what we assessed to be their objectives, which was population centers so that they could occupy and take over Ukraine,” the official said on Monday. “And so what we’re seeing now, with these increased long-range fires and missile strikes, artillery bombardment, in trying to encircle a city so that you can lob more long-range fires into those cities, is a reflection of their — what some people believe is a desperate attempt by them to gain some momentum to try to turn the course of the war thus far.”
Russian forces are dealing with a litany of problems ranging from a lack of supplies and unexpected resistance from Ukrainian troops and civilians to decreasing morale from within their own force.
The official told reporters last Thursday that the Pentagon was seeing “anecdotal indications” that Russian forces’ morale is “flagging” and is “a function of poor leadership” as well as a “lack of information that the troops are getting about their mission and objectives.”
“I think disillusionment from being resisted as fiercely as they have been” has also contributed to the situation, the official explained.
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The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights announced on Monday that there have been 925 civilians killed, while another 1,496 have been wounded, though it warned the tolls are both likely “considerably higher” but information can be hard to verify in the middle of a war. More than 3 million people have fled, according to the U.N. International Organization for Migration, and that number is expected to increase significantly as the war continues.
