A bombed school in Zhytomyr, in northern Ukraine, on March 23, 2022.
Photo: FADEL SENNA / AFP / Getty Images
The Pentagon has been providing daily updates on the Russian invasion and Ukraine resistance efforts.
These are the highlights of what a top US defense official told reporters on Wednesday, 28 days into this invasion.
Russian troops face major setback east of kyiv
Ukrainian military forces have pushed back Russian forces east of kyiv 55 kilometers from the city center, according to a senior Pentagon official.
Russian forces had held for weeks some 20 to 30 kilometers from the center of the capital city. The official said that the Ukrainian forces near Bovary “They have been able to push the Russians back about 55 kilometers east and northeast of kyiv.”
The ability to push Russian forces back almost twice the distance from where they had been for weeks is in line with what the official said on Tuesday they were. indications that in some areas the Ukrainian forces tried to recover the territory taken by Russia.
“The Ukrainians are not just defending enough in some of these places, but they are going on offense in some of these places and pushing the Russians back, or in the case of kyiv basically forcing them into a defensive position. the Defense Department official said Wednesday.
Ukrainians push back Russian troops in Cherniviv
Meanwhile, Ukrainian troops in the city of Chernihiv, northeast of kyiv, they have also managed to slightly push back some of the Russian forces that have surrounded the city for weeks.
Russian troops now prioritize operations in the Donbas region
The Russians are moving out of Kharkiv towards Izium, southeast of Kharkiv, in what is believed to be it is an attempt to isolate the joint force’s area of operations which is basically the Donba regions, in eastern Ukraine, the Pentagon official said on Wednesday.
The official said it appears that Russian forces are fighting to take control of the southern port city of Mariupol and then moving north into Donbass to isolate the ukrainian army.
“That’s one reason, not the only reason, why we think [los rusos] they are so interested in Mariupol: to be able to go up from the south and down from the north from Izium”, where the Ukrainians are fighting hard to take back the city, he added.
Russia has many missiles left to use
According to the official, Russia has now launched more than 1,200 missiles at Ukraine, but “we still assess that they have the vast majority of their assembled available inventory of surface-to-air missiles and cruise missiles available to them.”
Although the Russian military has spent much of the missile inventory prepared for operations in Ukraine, the official noted that “they still have a lot left.”
What else has happened in the Russia-Ukraine conflict
Western powers meet: World leaders are in Brussels for an extraordinary NATO summit as they seek to align their responses to Russia’s brutal invasion. A meeting of the European Council and the G7 will also take place on Thursday.
President Joe Biden will unveil new sanctions against Russian political figures and oligarchs, while the UK will announce a “major new military support package” for Ukraine.
Call for demonstrations around the world: President Volodymyr Zelensky is calling for global protests in support of Ukraine. Zelensky urged the world to unite against Russia’s invasion, saying “Russia’s war is not just the war against Ukraine, its meaning is much broader.”
Deaths on the streets: videos have emerged from the city of Izyum, which has been cut off from almost all communications since intense fighting broke out there last week. They show widespread destruction, burned and bombed buildings and bodies dumped in the streets.
Separately, uvideo from the northern city of Chernihiv shows “total carnage”, with buildings bombed, houses on fire and cemeteries so full they can’t handle all the dead, the city’s mayor said.
War crimes: The US government formally declared that members of the Russian armed forces have committed war crimes in Ukraine.
It may interest you:
– What are war crimes? What happens when the United States accuses Russia of these?
– Biden arrived in Brussels to participate on March 24 in three summits on the Russian invasion of Ukraine
– NATO estimates that 7,000 to 15,000 Russian soldiers have died in Ukraine
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