WASHINGTON — The Ukrainian offensive against Russian-occupied parts of the east and south has shown early signs of success, NATO secretary general Jens Stoltenberg said late Monday.
Ukrainian soldiers are “gaining ground,” Stoltenberg told USA TODAY, retaking seven small towns and villages from Russian troops. His comments are among the first on the record by a western leader on the initial success of Ukrainian forces. Ukrainian leaders have also announced similar gains.
“We need to be prepared that this offensive will be bloody and and difficult,” Stoltenberg said. “The Russians have had time to build — they’re quite heavy defensive lines, and to breach them is a demanding task.”
Though too soon to predict the outcome against Russia’s dug-in defenses, the early battles may suggest that the tens of billions invested by the U.S.-led coalition in equipping and training Ukrainian forces with western weapons and how to use them is paying off.
Russian President Vladimir Putin still claims his forces have the upper hand, saying late last week that “the Ukrainian troops haven’t achieved their stated tasks in a single area of fighting.”
But a day after hailing the retaking of three Donetsk province villages, the Ukrainian military said its forces added another small victory Monday by capturing the village of Storozhov in the same eastern region, providing momentum to the initial phase of the country’s long-awaited counteroffensive.
“The national flag is flying over Storozhov again, and it will be the same with every settlement until we liberate all Ukrainian land,’’ Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maliar wrote in a Telegram app posting with a photo of seven soldiers in front of a hollowed-out building.
For NATO allies, Ukrainian success on the battlefield will be critical to sustaining public support needed to ensure the steady flow of military aid that Stoltenberg said is vital.
The Pentagon has supplied Ukraine with hundreds of armored personnel carriers, mine-resistant armored trucks, and Humvees for the offensive. Germany has provided modern Leopard tanks, and Great Britain has begun supplying long-range aircraft-launched missiles to strike deep behind Russian lines.
For months, U.S. and NATO troops have been training Ukrainian forces in combining artillery fire to cover the troops in armored vehicles and on foot who will assault Russian fortifications.
Russian troops have spent considerable time digging trenches and erecting obstacles along a 600-mile front to stymie Ukrainian tanks and armored personnel carriers, according to a report by the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Russian forces also have aimed artillery ground at the flat, open ground that Ukrainian troops must cross to reach the defenses.
Russia’s stoutest defense is the province of Zaporizhzhya, where some of the heaviest initial fighting has taken place. Ukraine can threaten Russia’s main supply lines by cutting through this thicket.
Stoltenberg noted that Russian troops have been poorly led, equipped and supplied.
“But what we have seen is that Ukrainians have the courage, the determination to liberate land…and push back the Russians,” Stoltenberg said.
Stoltenberg is visiting NATO nations ahead of the alliance’s July summit in Vilnius, Lithuania. He is currently in Washington, where he plans to meet with President Joe Biden and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. The NATO chief’s meeting with Biden was delayed by a day after the U.S. president had to receive an unexpected root canal.
