KYIV, Ukraine (Washington Insider Magazine) – The Russian attack seemed to be stalled two days in due to stronger-than-expected opposition from highly determined Ukrainian military forces.
Despite having an overwhelming advantage in troops and weapons, the Russian advance slowed on Friday, and the swift triumph that Russian President Vladimir Putin had hoped for is no longer certain, according to a senior US defense official.
While Russian troops have threatened the capital, Kyiv, as well as other major cities such as Kharkiv and smaller but strategically important cities such as Rivne, none have been taken so far, according to the official, and Ukrainian air defenses have largely remained intact despite being attacked by ruthless missile strikes.
According to NBC NEWS, western Ukraine, which neighbors NATO member Poland and has a diplomatic base in the city of Lviv, stays relatively untouched.
While a Russian naval operation with hundreds of soldiers is underway west of Mariupol in the Sea of Azov, the source believes the forces are their route to the Donbas area, a pro-Russian territory where Russia-backed rebels have been battling the Ukrainian military for months.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine, who has dropped his tailored suits in favor of combat gear, has declined to leave Kyiv and has also been lobbying with Western nations to adopt harder sanctions against Moscow.
According to the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense, the Russians have sustained 800 fatalities, a figure that Moscow denies.
Putin continues to portray the largest European attack since World War II as a preventive operation, insisting that his force is winning the war.
Russian Defense Department spokesperson Igor Konashenkov asserted that Russian forces were winning battles across Ukraine, particularly in the pro-Russian regions of Luhansk and Donetsk in the country’s east.
The Ukrainian military has not been involved in the conflict, according to Konachenkov, and “only battalions of Ukrainian Nazis offer fierce resistance.”
For months, the Russians have been spreading false allegations about Nazi groups in Ukraine in order to justify an invasion of the nation.
Both Konachenkov and Putin tried to resurrect the bogus notion that Zelenskyy, Ukraine’s struggling president, was employing Ukrainians as “human shields,” despite the fact that Zelenskyy is Jewish and lost 3 members of the family in the Holocaust.
Konachenkov further stated that the Russian military units will not conduct any attacks on the Ukrainian capital’s civilian districts.
However, footage has already emerged showing residential apartment complexes in Kyiv that seemed to have been struck by missile attacks. Thousands of citizens have already taken refuge in shelters and subway stations, terror and the blaring of warning sirens making sleep impossible.
According to Petraeus, Zelenskyy and his fellow countrymen have won over naysayers who challenged Ukraine’s willingness to resist Putin’s army.
