The Ukrainian military’s General Staff on Thursday said that Russian forces were trying to encircle Kyiv moving from the north and west, but their advance has slowed down or even stopped.
The General Staff said that Ukrainian forces on Thursday drove Russians out of the village of Baklanova Muraviika near Chernihiv, which sits on a road leading to Kyiv.
However, Russian forces could be within 10 miles of central Kyiv after days of being stalled outside the Ukrainian capital, a senior defense official said Thursday.
Russia's military made what the official described as moderate operational advances within the last day. The closest forces were approaching from the northwest, near Kyiv Hostomel Airport, the official said.
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Experts have attributed Russia’s poor military performance to a variety of factors, including bad planning, fierce resistance from Ukrainian fighters and the Russian military’s reliance on young, untrained conscripts.
While Russian President Vladimir Putin initially expected to take control of Ukraine's capital within two days of the invasion, U.S. intelligence believes Kyiv is in a position to hold the Russians at bay for several more weeks, a U.S. official said Thursday.
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The official said Russian forces are capable of circling Kyiv in the next week or two but that the battle to take the capital is expected to take much longer than that. The official said the U.S. assessment, which is fluid and changes often, is that the fight for control of the city could take four to six weeks.
The official said Ukraine is using a layered, mobile defense — quick hit-and-run strikes using light infantry and portable anti-armor weapons. The Ukrainian military is fighting on its home turf and using the local population as its eyes and ears, so its intelligence and mobility have been better than the Russians'.
The officials said the Russians still have the overwhelming force superiority but that they are not using it effectively or operating in a coordinated way, as a large military could. In the meantime, the Ukrainian military has put up a tough fight. The official said the U.S. believes that Russia has lost hundreds of vehicles, along with 15 to 20 fixed-wing aircraft and 20 to 25 helicopters.
This is a live update. Click here for complete coverage of the crisis in Ukraine.
