Ukraine is pushing Russian forces into 'more defensive positions' around cities, US defense official says

A view to the road with calt traps on March 4, 2022 in Kyiv, Ukraine. — A road in Kyiv on March 4, 2022.
Photo by Anastasia Vlasova/Getty Images

A month into Russia's offensive against Ukraine, its advances on major Ukrainian cities have stalled.
Around some cities, Ukrainians have forced Russian into defensive position or to retreat, a US official said Wednesday.

After weeks of being stalled around Kyiv, Russian forces have started to dig in and have even been pushed farther from the Ukrainian capital city, a senior US defense official said Wednesday.

Russian forces northwest of Kyiv have made "no movement" and remain 9 to 12 miles from the city center, the official told reporters on a condition of anonymity to discuss intelligence about the Ukraine war.

Those Russian troops are "basically digging in and they are establishing defensive positions," the official added. "So it's not that they're not advancing. They're actually not trying to advance right now. They're taking more defensive positions."

Ukrainian troops fighting to the east of Kyiv have actually pushed the Russian forces they face backward. The assessment on Tuesday was that those Russian troops were 12 to 18 miles from Kyiv, but as of Wednesday they were about 34 miles east and northeast of the city.

"We now assess that the Ukrainians have pushed them back farther to the east and northeast of Kyiv. That is a change from yesterday," the official said Wednesday.

A school building damaged in the northern Ukrainian city of Chernihiv on March 4, 2022. — A damaged school in the city of Chernihiv, March 4, 2022.
Dimitar Dilkoff/AFP/Getty Images

Russian forces continue to stall or even retreat around other Ukrainian cities.

Russian troops are still trying to encircle the city of Chernihiv northeast of Kyiv, but the Ukrainians "have fought very hard to try to not only to keep the Russians out but to try to push them back," the official said, adding that the Russians now appear to be about five to six miles from the center of that city.

"They're stalled and in some places around Chernihiv they are ceding ground. They are actually moving in the opposite direction, but not by much," the official said.

Around Kharkiv, farther east, Russian troops are about 9 to 15 miles from the city center and face "very, very stiff resistance," the official said.

In recent days, Ukraine's Donbas region, which includes the Russian-backed separatists regions of Luhansk and Donetsk "has become much more active for Russian forces," the official said.

Russia continues to try to cut off the Luhansk and Donetsk regions from the rest of Ukraine, which appears to be an attempt "to fix" the Ukrainian forces in what Kyiv calls the Joint Forces Operation area so they "can't be used elsewhere," the official said.

The Russians have "applied a lot more energy in the Luhansk-Donetsk area, particularly around Luhansk," and there are indications Moscow is "really starting to prioritize that part of eastern Ukraine," the official added, saying it was "interesting" to see Russians dig in around Kyiv but try to go on the offensive in eastern Ukraine. "That's a little bit of a change from what we've been talking about before."

mariupol ukraine — Smoke rises after shelling in Mariupol, March 9, 2022.
Evgeniy Maloletka/Associated Press

The official said there is heavy fighting between Russian and Ukrainian forces in the city of Mariupol in southeastern Ukraine and that Russian forces are repositioning around Mykolaiv, farther west, where they have been "frustrated by the Ukrainian defense."

The blunted advances on Ukraine's cities reflect the struggles Russia has encountered since launching an invasion of the country from three sides that President Vladimir Putin termed "a special military operation" on February 24.

In the weeks since, the Russians have encountered logistical challenges and sustained attacks from Ukrainian forces armed with anti-tank and anti-aircraft weapons that have taken a heavy toll on Russian forces. Numerous Russian senior commanders, including generals, have been killed in the fighting — deaths that may be related to their use of unsecure communications.

Intercepts of those communications show Russians fighting around Kyiv venting their frustration with each other, struggling with electronic jamming by the Ukrainians, and being taunted by Ukrainian personnel.

"Buran, go home," a Ukrainian says to a Russian in an audio intercept obtained by The New York Times. "It's better to be a deserter than fertilizer."

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