STYMIED AT EVERY TURN: As a senior defense official relayed the latest U.S. intelligence on the war in Ukraine to reporters at the Pentagon yesterday, it painted an overall picture of Russian forces stalled or stymied at every turn.

Russian troops in the north, pushed back 20 to 30 miles from Kharkiv, still have designs on the major industrial city near the Russian border, but have made little progress in recent weeks. “The Ukrainians still hold Kharkiv. They never actually gave Kharkiv up,” the senior defense official said. “And the Russians have not made any progress there.”

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