(AFP)
A senior Pentagon official announced on Wednesday that the Ukrainians have forced the Russian forces to retreat over the past 24 hours to a distance of more than 30 km east of Kyiv, and that the Russian army has begun to establish defensive positions on a number of fighting fronts in Ukraine.
“The Ukrainians succeeded in pushing the Russians to retreat 55 km east and north-east of Kyiv,” the official told reporters, asking not to be named, explaining that this represented a change in the situation on the ground around the capital.
Until Tuesday, the Pentagon had said that Russian forces were stationed 15-20 kilometers from central Kyiv.
“We are beginning to see them entrenching and establishing defensive positions,” the US Defense Department official added.
“The issue is not that they (the Russians) are not advancing, but rather that they are not trying to advance, they are taking defensive positions,” he added.
According to Pentagon estimates, the Russian forces are located 10 kilometers from the center of Chernihiv, northeast of Kyiv.
He explained that the Russian forces in this region “give up lands and move in the opposite direction, but not much.”
In Kharkiv (east), where fighting is still raging, Russian forces are still 15-20 kilometers from the city center and are facing “very heavy” resistance from the Ukrainians.
According to the US Defense Department official, the Russian military now appears to be giving priority to Luhansk and Donetsk in eastern Ukraine.
“They are spreading a lot more energy in Lugansk/Donetsk, especially around Lugansk,” he said.
“We believe that they are trying to stabilize the Ukrainian forces deployed since 2014 along the front line with the separatist areas so that they cannot be used elsewhere,” he added.
As for southern Ukraine, the official said that the Russian Navy uses the port of Berdyansk, located on the Sea of Azov, to supply supplies and fuel.
On the other hand, the official said that the Pentagon did not notice any change on the ground in Odessa.
He added that, unlike what happened at the weekend, the Russian ships that bombed Odessa several times over the weekend, did not fire any missiles at them on Tuesday and Wednesday.
