Since the war against Ukraine began on February 24, the Russian armed forces have launched over 900 missiles of various types and sizes on our territory. With them, the invaders fired at civilian infrastructure and killed civilians.
On the 21st day of hostilities, the Russians are intensifying long-range fire on Mariupol, Kyiv, Kharkiv, Chernihiv and other Ukrainian cities. This is reported by the US Department of Defense website, quoting a senior Pentagon official.
“What we are seeing on the ground is an ongoing military effort to subjugate said population centers. They are trying to do this now with even more violence, using more and more long-range missiles that are becoming more and more chaotic in terms of what exactly they hit.", - shared the opinion of the representative of the US defense department.
According to him, despite the bombardments, large Ukrainian cities continue to defend themselves courageously. He mentioned Nikolaev and Brovary, located not far east of Kyiv.
The Pentagon official stressed that over the past few days, Russian forces have not made much progress, as "almost all of Russia's achievements remain at an impasse." At the same time, the Ukrainian defenders, he noted, continue to deliver effective strikes against armored vehicles, aircraft, logistics and support equipment of the RF Armed Forces.
In addition, despite having more aircraft and making the same number of sorties, the American believes the Russian occupiers have not achieved overall air superiority. In this context, he mentioned the effective use of anti-aircraft missile systems, including portable ones, by the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Also, the official added, Ukrainian forces skillfully use unmanned aerial vehicles for self-defense.
"We believe they still have a significant amount of inventory," a Pentagon spokesman said.
The official said that US and its allies have already contacted senior Ukrainian military officials to assess their additional security needs.
