Russian forces have continued to make some further advances during the last 24 hours, a senior US protection official advised reporters on Friday.
Russian forces which can be the closest to Kyiv, about 15 kilometers (about 9 miles) exterior of town middle, haven’t moved any nearer since yesterday, the official stated.
There are two different teams of Russian forces exterior of Kyiv which can be probably shifting in direction of Kyiv. To the north of Kyiv, a gaggle of Russian forces are “someplace between 20 and 30 kilometers” (or between greater than 12 and 18 miles) from Kyiv’s metropolis middle. This group has “moved nearer” to Kyiv during the last 24 hours, the official stated.
A separate group of Russian forces nearer to Sumy, to the east of Kyiv, have stalled and are repositioning round Sumy, the official stated.
“We expect a lot of these forces have in truth repositioned again to the neighborhood of Sumy. It’s unclear to us why they did this. It could possibly be as benign as they’re making progress on that northern leg, they usually didn’t really feel they wanted one other leg going, or they’re going to mix what’s left with that southernmost leg, with the northernmost leg, it could possibly be simply that benign, we simply don’t know,” the official stated.
Chernihiv, one other Ukrainian metropolis, stays remoted. Russian forces are “proper exterior town,” and there may be “clearly some preventing within the metropolis,” however the US doesn’t assess that Russian forces have “moved past Chernihiv,” the official stated.
“They’re nonetheless in and round Chernihiv, and once more we assess Chernihiv is remoted, and below growing stress,” the official stated.
In Kharkiv, Russian forces are “on the outskirsts” of town,” the official stated. The US is seeing studies of web outages within the metropolis, “which appears to be a part of the playbook,” the official stated, however there’s nonetheless “a whole lot of preventing there.”
“They haven’t taken Kharkiv, it’s being well-defended however they’re closing in on it if you’ll from a geographic perspective,” the official stated.
The southern metropolis of Mariupol is below “growing stress,” the official stated.
“Mariupol can be being defended, they’re preventing again, and we proceed to see heavy bombardment there because the Russians attempt to enhance their stress,” the official stated.
The US continues to evaluate that Russian forces have captured Kherson.
In Mykolaiv, Russian forces haven’t taken town but however it’s coming below “growing stress,” the official stated.
“We’ve noticed the Ukrainians are persevering with to defend town, and the Russians are simply exterior town, once more principally to the northeast, so once more not a whole lot of change there from yesterday, however continues to be closely fought over,” the official stated.
