Ukraine’s counteroffensive is going slower than Ukraine and its partners would like in some areas, partly because Russian forces have had a long time to prepare their defences, John Kirby, the US National Security Council’s coordinator for strategic communications, said at a White House briefing on June 26, 2023.
Defensive lines three deep
Kirby noted that President Volodymyr Zelenskyy had himself acknowledged that progress was “slower in some areas than he would have liked.”
“The Russians have invested a lot in the last six, eight months in terms of defensive capabilities,” Kirby said. “In some cases, their defensive lines are three deep.” He added that “defense is the stronger form of war, and so the Ukrainians are running into Russian defenses.”
Kirby said he would not engage in “armchair quarterbacking of the counteroffensive from this podium.”
Continued support
He said Washington remained focused on ensuring that Ukraine had what it needed to succeed, “whether it’s training, tools, equipment.”
Wagner mutiny “an internal Russian matter”
Kirby also addressed the armed mutiny by the Wagner Group and its leader Yevgeny Prigozhin over the weekend, insisting that “the United States was not involved and would not get involved in these events.” There was “no U.S. involvement whatsoever — no Western involvement,” he said, calling it “an internal Russian matter.”
He said the events would “absolutely” not change continued US support for Ukraine.
Sources
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