Pentagon assesses Ukraine's counteroffensive

The US defence establishment has assessed the Ukrainian army's successes on the frontline. In particular, the Pentagon described the pace of the Ukrainian army's counter-offensive as astonishing. At the same time, the director of the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the US Army, Lieutenant General Douglas Sims, said that the Ukrainian army's successes were not so rapid because the counter-offensive was taking place in very difficult conditions.

The Ukrainians are using new equipment and doing so while being shelled and bombed, not to mention large-scale mining by the Russians. And where they are gaining hundreds of metres a day, and in some places perhaps a kilometre a day they are doing it at great expense," Sims said at a briefing when asked about the pace of the AFU advance.

The US lieutenant general agreed that the counter-offensive is proceeding "in excellent order on the battlefield," though perhaps not at the speed the US would like.

This is heavy fighting, it's being conducted in difficult terrain, under fire, and when you consider all of that, it's just fine," Douglas Sims added.

We would like to point out that since the beginning of the summer, the Ukrainian military has started active operations on several parts of the front. They have already managed to de-occupy up to 10 settlements in south-eastern Ukraine. The country's Defence Ministry claims certain successes near Bakhmut.