Russian progress is “slow and uneven” in Donbas
. According to a senior US defense official, the Russian forces are making “slow and uneven” and “incremental” progress in the Donbas region because of Ukrainian resistance and ongoing logistics problems. According to US assessments, “There’s still a lot of back and forth in the Donbas in terms of territory gained and or lost by both sides.” The US official said Russia now has 92 battalion tactical groups in Ukraine, up from 85 last week. However, the official also noted that continued logistics and sustainment challenges prevent Russian forces from making more than “several kilometers or so progress on any given day, just because they don’t want to run out too far ahead of their logistics and sustainment lines.” Nevertheless, Russia is making some advances to the east and south of Izium while still facing pushback from Ukrainian forces.