updates
Battle for air supremacy over Ukraine
US sees ‘risk-averse behavior by Russian pilots’
03/23/2022, 11:31 p.m
According to a Pentagon official, the air defense systems that the Ukrainian military is receiving from the United States and other Western countries are being used “very effectively.” For this reason, the Russian Air Force is still failing to capture the airspace over Ukraine.
According to an assessment by the US Department of Defense, the Russian armed forces have not regained air sovereignty over Ukraine about a month after the start of the war. The airspace remains contested, a senior Pentagon official said in a telephone briefing with journalists. The US and its allies worked to provide the Ukrainians with more long-range anti-aircraft systems.
The Ukrainians are using the current systems “very effectively”. That’s one reason “why we’re seeing quite risk-averse behavior on the part of some Russian pilots.” The Pentagon official said Ukrainian troops managed to push back Russian attackers east and northeast of the capital, Kyiv. In some contested areas, the Ukrainians not only managed to defend themselves, they even went on the offensive against Russian troops. “In the case of Kyiv, they’re basically forcing them into a defensive position.”
The Pentagon official said that Russian forces had retreated more than 30 kilometers in eastern Kiev within 24 hours. “We’re starting to see them entrench and set up defensive positions,” he added. “The Ukrainians managed to push back the Russians 55 kilometers east and north-east of Kyiv,” the Pentagon official said. The US Department of Defense said on Tuesday that the Russian armed forces were still around 20 kilometers from the center of the Ukrainian capital.
Russian troops are stuck outside Chernihiv
According to the Pentagon, the Russian armed forces are also not making any headway in the vicinity of the city of Chernihiv, north of Kyiv. The Russian soldiers were stuck there ten kilometers from the center. In some areas, the Russian soldiers have recently retreated. “They are even moving in the opposite direction, but not by much,” said the ministry official.
Russian troops are still confronted with “very, very firm” resistance from Ukrainians in hard-fought Kharkiv in eastern Ukraine, he said. There, the Russian armed forces are still 15 to 20 kilometers from the city center.
According to the Pentagon representative, the Russian army is now increasingly concentrating on the pro-Russian separatist areas of Luhansk and Donetsk. According to the report, the Russian military is apparently pursuing a strategy of “tying down” Ukrainian forces stationed along the former front line in eastern Ukraine so that they “cannot be deployed elsewhere”.
Kremlin Navy refuels near Berdyansk
The Pentagon made hardly any changes in the vicinity of the Black Sea metropolis of Odessa. Unlike at the beginning of the week, no more missiles have been fired from Russian ships in the direction of the port city in the past 48 hours, the Pentagon official said
Meanwhile, the Russian Navy used the port of Berdyansk on the Sea of Azov to refuel their ships. Berdyansk is one of the few Ukrainian cities under the control of the Russian army a month after the start of the Russian invasion.
The briefing went on to say that US President Joe Biden’s approved arms shipments from a $800 million military aid package for Ukraine would be launched very soon. According to Biden last week, this should provide Ukraine with thousands of anti-tank weapons, around 800 anti-aircraft missiles, 7,000 firearms such as submachine guns, numerous grenade launchers, 20 million rounds of ammunition and even drones.