According to a senior US defence official, Russian forces are making “slow and uneven” and “incremental” advance in the Donbas region, in part due to Ukrainian resistance and ongoing supply challenges.

On a background conversation with reporters, the official added, “There’s still a lot of back and forth in the Donbas in terms of land acquired and or lost by basically both parties.”
Russia currently has 92 battalion tactical groups in Ukraine, up from 85 last week, according to the source.

Continuing “logistics and sustainment issues,” according to the official, prohibit Russian forces from making more than “a few kilometres or so progress on any given day, mainly to avoid running out too far ahead of their logistics and sustainment lines.”

According to the official, Russia is making some progress to the east and south of Izium, but is still experiencing resistance from Ukrainian soldiers.

The US has witnessed some Russian forces leaving the besieged city of Mariupol and going northwest towards Zaporizhzhia, according to the official, despite the fact that Mariupol has not fallen to Russia, as evidenced by continued Russian bombardment against the city.

According to the official, Russia has launched almost 1,900 missiles at Ukraine since the invasion began in February.

According to a senior US defence official, Russian forces are still experiencing “morale and cohesion issues,” particularly because they are employing conscripts to augment their battalion tactical groups that are returning to the Donbas region.

“We have some early indications that while the conscripts start out with high morale because they’ve been feasting on Russian propaganda,” the official said on a background call with reporters, “it doesn’t take long for that morale to be sapped once they’re put into combat and face Ukrainian resistance.”