The head of the Pentagon, Lloyd Austin, on Thursday admitted that Ukraine has losses of equipment on the battlefield as part of the launched offensive, but said that the Russians are showing the same images of destroyed equipment a thousand times, Ukrainian Pravda writes.

“This is war. We know there will be losses [de echipamente] on the battlefield from both sides. What is important: Ukrainians have the opportunity to restore damaged equipment, where possible, repair it and return to the battlefield,” he said at a press conference in Brussels after Ukraine’s Ramstein-style meeting with partners.

Austin emphasized that the ability of Ukraine’s Western allies and partners in the rest of the world to continue supplies is important.

“There will be more losses on the battlefield. I think the Russians showed us the same 5 cars a thousand times from ten different angles. But, frankly speaking, the Ukrainians still have a lot of combat power,” he added.

His comments came after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi admitted for the first time last Saturday that his country’s armed forces had launched a long-awaited offensive against the Russian occupiers.

For months, Ukraine has said it plans to launch a large-scale offensive to retake Russian-held swaths of territory in the south and east, but has been tight-lipped about its operations until Zelenskyy denied a major operation had begun a few months ago.

What Ukraine says about its offensive

Deputy Defense Minister of Kyiv Hanna Malyar said on Thursday that the Ukrainian army is “advancing” on the front line, despite the “strong resistance” of Russian troops, especially in the south of Ukraine.

Over the past ten days, Ukrainian forces have advanced “more than three kilometers” in the direction of Bakhmut in the east of the country, Malyar said during a press conference. In the south, she spoke of the “gradual but sure advance” of Ukrainian troops. soldiers, although the Russian troops are “putting up strong resistance.”

In this area, “the armed forces are facing total mining of fields,” “the use of kamikaze drones” and “intense shelling,” she said.

In the Bakhmut area, “the enemy is currently mobilizing additional reserves” to prevent the advance of Ukrainian troops, in particular, an assault unit was transferred from the south, Malyar noted.

In general, during a week of fierce fighting, the Ukrainian army recaptured more than 100 square kilometers, the officer of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Oleksiy Gromov, also reported.

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