Ukrainian forces are attacking the 40-mile-long military convoy that is heading towards Kyiv, according to a general.
Ukrainian forces are using Su-24 and Su-25 fighter jets, artillery, and missile strikes against the convoy, Budanov said in a Wednesday interview, adding that his “intelligence officers and agents are directing and calling the strikes.”
Russian officials have not made any public remarks about why the convoy hasn’t moved.
Marine Lt. Col. Anton Semelroth, a Pentagon spokesman, told the Military Times that he “would not speak to intel assessments” after Budanov’s claims. The Epoch Times has contacted the Department of Defense for comment.
Department of Defense spokesman John Kirby said Wednesday that Russian forces haven’t made “appreciable” progress toward the capital in “two to three days.”
“As for the last time we saw them make appreciable [gains], it’s probably been two to three days before the last time that we thought that they made any major geographical distance toward Kyiv,” Kirby said, adding the convoy remains about 15 miles from Kyiv.
Pentagon officials “believe the Russians are deliberately, actually, regrouping themselves, and reassessing the progress that they have not made, and how to make up the lost time,” Kirby told reporters, but he added that the troops “have experienced logistics and sustainment challenges, challenges that we don’t believe they have fully anticipated.”
Russian troops have more success in the southern and eastern portion of Ukraine, Kirby noted. Some analysts have suggested that Russian forces have been able to link the Crimean Peninsula with the Donbas separatist region in eastern Ukraine.
“They launched these offenses in the south out of Crimea, where they have been occupying for eight years. So they have infrastructure there. They already had a not insignificant force presence in Crimea to draw from, as well as infrastructure and sustainment capability down there,” Kirby said. “It’s been more refined than the expeditionary kind of sustainment they had to put in place in the north.”
Ukraine and Russia have been embroiled in fighting for more than a week as of Thursday. Russia has declared control over one major city, Kherson, although Ukrainian officials dispute the claim.
Starting earlier this week, Russian forces escalated their bombardment of Kharkiv, located near the Ukraine–Russia border.
During remarks on Thursday, Russian President Vladimir Putin said the invasion is going according to schedule.
“I would like to say that the special military operation is being conducted strictly in accordance to the plan and the schedule. All objectives that were set are being resolved or achieved successfully,” Putin said.
