Russian troops are continuing to push toward Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine, though their progress is slower than expected, according to a senior Department of Defense official.
The troops are roughly 25 kilometers away from the capital, about five kilometers closer than they had been over the weekend, though their advancement “remains slowed,” according to the official, who briefed reporters on Monday.
“It’s not a big muscle change,” the official explained. “Their advance on Kyiv still appears to be their main line of effort, and we expect that they’re going to want to continue to move forward and try to encircle the city.”
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The Pentagon has said for days now that Russian troops are not closing in on Kyiv as quickly as Russian President Vladimir Putin expected. With a buildup of roughly 200,000 troops massed on Ukraine’s borders, the senior defense official said that roughly 75% of them have entered Ukraine, and this has continued to increase over recent days. The official also noted that the Pentagon had not seen evidence to suggest that Putin had replaced some of the troops who left the border to enter Ukraine from other forces in the interior.
Russia’s lack of progress, the defense official said, is believed to be a result of Ukraine’s “very stiff and very effective” defense, as well as “logistical and sustainment issues that the Russians have had.”
The official could not pinpoint the cause of the problems but added that it’s possible “they didn’t plan properly or … they had a perfect plan and they just didn’t just execute it properly. But we suspect that the slowness of the advances is based on those two factors.”
Reports indicate that Belarus, which allowed Russian troops to enter Ukraine through its border, might be preparing to send military forces into Ukraine to assist Moscow. But the official said that to date, DOD has only seen Russian forces inside Ukraine’s borders.
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