Ukrainian forces have launched a counter-offensive on the southern city of Kherson, the only major urban center completely conquered by Moscow forces, which is now
"contested"
, a senior Pentagon official said on Friday.
“The Ukrainians are trying to take over Kherson,”
the official, who requested anonymity, told reporters.
"We can't say exactly who is in control of Kherson, but the fact is that it is no longer as firmly under Russian control as before."
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Taken on March 3 by Russian forces, this strategic city located at the mouth of the Dnieper, where demonstrations were violently repressed,
"is again a disputed territory",
he added.
If the Ukrainians managed to regain control of the city, the Russian positions around Mikolaiv would find themselves
"sandwiched"
between the Ukrainian forces defending Mikolaiv and those in Kherson, he said.
The Russians would have
"a lot of trouble making progress on the pitch towards Odessa
," he noted.
“It would be an important development”
on the southern front.
"Heavy Fighting"
Fighting also opposes Russian forces to Ukrainian resistance in the localities of Bucha and Irpin, on the northwestern outskirts of kyiv, according to information from the Pentagon.
"We observed intense fighting"
in this area, he said.
“The Ukrainians are trying to dislodge the Russians from Bucha and Irpin.”
While the progress of the Russian army on the ground seems to be stalling, its air force is increasing the bombardments, in particular in the kyiv region, in Chernihiv (north) and around the separatist regions of Donbass, according to the Pentagon official.
The bombardments are also increasingly destructive as the Russian army's precision missile stockpiles dwindle, he said, noting, however, that Russian forces still have more than 50% of their missile stock.
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Russia is also mobilizing Russian forces from the separatist territories of Georgia to send them to Ukraine, according to the senior American official.
“We have early indications that they are trying to send reinforcements from Georgia
,” he said.
“We have observed movements of a number of soldiers from Georgia, we do not have an exact number
,” he noted, adding that he could not give details on the date of their possible arrival in the theater. Ukrainian.
Following a flashpoint conflict with Georgia in 2008, Russia unilaterally recognized the independence of two pro-Russian Georgian separatist territories, Abkhazia and South Ossetia, establishing military bases there.