Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is turning out to be a colossal disaster for Vladimir Putin as his forces appear to be suffering from shortages, and commanders are struggling to sustain their troops in combat amid fierce resistance from Ukrainian soldiers, according to a senior Pentagon official.
Offering an update on the conflict, the official said that Russian forces are “basically frozen around the country on multiple lines of axes, struggling to fuel themselves and to feed their troops and to supply them with arms and ammunition,” Newsweek reported Thursday.
As a result, Russia appears to now be relying more on so-called “dumb” bombs than on precision-guided munitions in its full-scale offensive against Ukraine, the Pentagon official said, according to the outlet.
“They clearly weren’t ready for the pushback that they have been getting from the Ukrainians,” the official explained before adding that “Russia is also struggling to sustain troops in the field.”
“We talked back in week one about how they hadn’t planned properly for logistics and sustainment, how they were struggling with fueling and even feeding their troops,” the official said. “We’ve seen them try to overcome some of those … issues, but they’re still struggling to sustain their troops in the field.”
“Part of that we believe is because they didn’t properly plan for—to execute good logistics. But also because they ran into a stiffer resistance from the Ukrainians than they expected,” he added.
Read the full report at Newsweek.