The Russian military’s “main objective” in Ukraine remains the toppling of the government in Kyiv, even though this has not gone according to plan in the first two weeks, a senior defense official said.
The Department of Defense continues to see evidence that the Ukrainian resistance is slowing down Russian forces, with the official saying Tuesday that they “haven’t moved closer to the city center.”
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“We’ve seen nothing that would tell us that they are not still interested in circling, enforcing the surrender of Kyiv,” the official added. “We still assess that is a main objective of them.”
The official claimed that Russian forces are closing in on Kyiv from three different sides, near Hostomel Airport to the west, around Chernihiv, and on a northeastern advance around the city of Sumy. The latter axis, the official said, is an “advance that we haven’t seen much of recently.”
“They still seem to be plagued by logistics and sustainment challenges,” the official added. “They still are struggling to overcome fuel shortages, food shortages, and making sure that they can, in terms of ground troops, that they are able to arm themselves and defend themselves, and so they’re still working their way through that.”
Additionally, the official claimed that “recon elements” are responsible for the “isolated fighting” within Kyiv.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has deployed “nearly 100%” of the combat power that he amassed at the border into Ukraine, and he “still has 95% of the combat power that he started with,” the official added. “The combat power available to him, if you count his estimated losses just in terms of aircraft and vehicles that are either inoperable or not moving or not available to him, he still has a lot of combat power available.”
Russia has now fired “nearly 670” missiles since the invasion began nearly two weeks ago, and while almost half were fired from within Russia, “the other half largely” came “from inside Ukraine.”
“A little bit more than 70” were fired from Belarus, and about “a half dozen or so” were from the Black Sea, the official added.
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The Russians have had more success in the south, and the official noted that they have now surrounded the port city of Mariupol.
