MADRID, 20 May. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The United States has claimed that weather in eastern and southern Ukraine has affected Moscow’s flight operations in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, lowering Russia’s departure count to 140 over the course of the last 24 hours.
“We think there are a couple of factors there. One is the safe climate and another is that they have drastically reduced the number of attacks that they are carrying out in Mariupol,” a senior US defense official told a news conference, adding that this may indicate that “resistance” has ended in the city.
Thus, he has indicated that it makes “logical sense”, since the Ukrainian side “has admitted” that its operations in Mariupol have ended. “We assess that their naval assets are a bit closer to Crimea also due to the weather in the northern Black Sea,” she added.
Despite this, he explained that the air strikes by Russian troops continue “near” Kharkov, and in the Donbas region. Specifically, the senior US official has stressed that they continue “wanting to move west out of Donetsk.”
“The areas where we are seeing activity are in the direction of Slovyansk. We have been talking about their desire to move to Slovyansk in the past, but there is no major change in the territory controlled by either party,” he said.
“Our view is that it is possible that the fighting will intensify near Liman as the Russians try to regain a sense of momentum there. But we haven’t seen that yet,” he said, adding that “the Russians are advancing west from Donetsk towards that city Velyka Novosilka”.
Although the advances on one side and the other have not changed, from the United States they have assessed this Thursday that the confrontations will continue “on that same axis.” “We continue to see the Ukrainians start to retake territory north and northeast of Kharkov,” he explained.
“Down in the south, Russian-Ukrainian activity continues between Kherson and Mikolaiv. We see the Russians now making some harassing shots and some probing attacks in the direction of Mikolaiv. But at the same time they are also tightening some of their positions defensive lines north of Kherson”, he specified.
In addition, he stressed that there is “great activity” between these two locations, although “an imminent major assault on Mikolaiv” is not foreseen and they do not see “any indication from a naval perspective that Russian troops are going to move in Odessa in the short term.” term”.
“We don’t see great command and control yet. We don’t see really strong logistics and sustainment efforts yet, so feel comfortable being very aggressive to move large formations long distances in a short period of time,” said the senior. American official.
Thus, he has assured that there is “a rigid and agile Ukrainian resistance”, especially in areas such as Mikolaiv and Kherson, where, according to the US side, “a fight with knives” is taking place. “The cohesion of their (Ukrainian) unit is not a problem. Their command and control is not a problem, nor are their logistics and maintenance,” he added.
The United States has noted that Russian troops “go after smaller targets.” “Sometimes those targets are only held for a short period of time before the Ukrainians take them back,” she said.
“They’re adjusting and trying to use smaller formations, accomplishing smaller targets to try to get a more fragmented approach to progress. But the Ukrainians are responding. So we think they just haven’t been able to, even on a smaller scale, make a lot of progress”, he concluded.
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