Russia’s push to take control of Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine, is going slower than expected, according to a senior U.S. defense official.
The Russian military began their offensive Thursday on three “lines of axes” — one from Belarus south toward Kyiv, one north from Crimea, and one from Russia going into Ukraine along the border. The official said on Friday that while those trajectories largely remain unchanged, there appears to be some unexpected resistance from Ukrainian forces.
The troops heading “towards Kyiv, we assess is going slower than the Russians had anticipated it going,” the senior defense official said. “They’re meeting more resistance than they expected.”
On Thursday, both Ukrainian and Russian officials confirmed Russian troops captured a nuclear power plant in Chernobyl. Ukraine officials are reporting higher radiation levels around Chernobyl nuclear plant since Russia gained control of the area.
“They are not moving on Kyiv as fast as what we believe they anticipated they will be able to do,” the official added.
Ukrainian forces haven’t given up elsewhere either.
“In the Kharkiv area, that second line of advance that we’ve talked about yesterday, we assess that that continues to be contested. Still fighting going on there,” the official said, adding that one change they’ve seen in Russia’s movements is from the troops leaving Crimea.
The troops had been heading toward Kherson, and there’s a dam and power plant nearby, which are being contested — though the Pentagon has noticed some troops coming from that direction splitting off and heading northeast in the direction of Mariupol and the Donbas region.
The U.S. has previously said Russia had amassed “between 169,000 and 190,000” troops along Ukraine’s border, and roughly a third have advanced into Ukraine, according to the official. However, the official did not provide a more precise estimation.
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The Ukrainian government issued a state of emergency lasting at least 30 days on Wednesday. A day later, Ukrainian President Volomydyr Zelensky banned all men ages 18 to 60 from leaving the country.
Despite threats, he has remained in Kyiv and has called on foreign leaders to do more to stop the invasion.
