Ukraine and the US: Counteroffensive Progressing

(Patria) - Ukraine has been cautious in counting the gains of the counteroffensive it launched this
month to reclaim territory occupied by Russian forces, and on Friday its
president and an American general acknowledged that progress is measured in blood, Reuters reported.

The top U.S. officer, Army General Mark Milley, said at the National Press Club in
Washington that the counteroffensive is "progressing steadily, deliberately punching through very
heavy minefields... 500 meters a day, 1,000 meters a day, 2,000 meters a day and so on."

He said he was not surprised that the progress is slower than some people and computers could
predict. "War on paper and real war are different. In real war, real people die. Real
people are on those front lines, and real people are in those vehicles. Real bodies are shattered by high
explosives," he said.

"What I said is that it will take six, eight, ten weeks, it will be very difficult. It will be very
long and it will be very, very bloody. Let no one have any illusions about that," he added.

Last week, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the counteroffensive was
"slower than desired," without being too specific. Zelenskyy said on Friday that his
forces had advanced "in all directions of our active operations," while Hanna Maliar,
Deputy Minister of Defense, said the military assessed that progress "is going according to plan" and that
the counteroffensive should be evaluated with "many different military tasks."