According to Sky News, Ukraine’s latest counteroffensive is going “slower than expected” but is still progressing, a senior US general has said.

Speaking at the National Press Club, General Mark Milley said: “We haven’t had time to discuss this: It (the Ukrainian counteroffensive) is moving slower than people anticipated, but that doesn’t surprise me.”

“He moves forward with confidence, with purpose, cutting his way through very difficult minefields and so on,” he added.

Ukrainian officials have widely reported progress on all fronts

Ukrainian troops are advancing in all directions of the counteroffensive against the Russian occupation forces, a high-ranking official of the Ministry of Defense said on Friday, citing Reuters.

Since the counteroffensive began this month, Ukraine says it has taken control of several villages in the southeast, although Russia still holds parts of Ukrainian territory in the east, south and southeast.

“If we are talking about the entire front line, both in the east and in the south, then we have taken a strategic initiative and are advancing in all directions,” Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Malyar said on Ukrainian state television.

Zelensky calls for strengthening the front in the north of the country

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy ordered army commanders to strengthen the northern military sector after the leader of the Russian mercenary group Wagner arrived in Belarus, where he could set up a base, Reuters and Agerpres reported on Friday.

Volodymyr Zelenskyi visits the Ugledarsky Front. Photo: Pool / President of Ukraine / Zuma Press / Profimedia

The Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, General Valery Zaluzhnyi, and the Commander of the Northern Military Sector, Serhii Nayev, were instructed to implement a number of measures to strengthen this direction, Zelenskyi said in Telegram.

He also noted that he had a meeting with government officials and the military, where he received a report from the intelligence services and security forces on the situation in Belarus, a country that borders Ukraine to the north and whose territory was at the beginning of the Russian invasion. , the launching pad for an offensive in northern Ukraine, from where Russian troops have since withdrawn to focus on the east and south of that country.

In his statement, Zelensky did not mention Yevhen Prigozhin, who went into exile in Belarus after the uprising he launched late last week to oust Russia’s military leadership, which he accused of incompetence in the war in Ukraine.

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