The United States Department of Defense praised the effectiveness of the Ukrainian army. This is stated on the website of the department.

Ukrainian forces in the north saw some gains in territory recaptured, including areas near Kharkiv, a senior Defense Department official said today.

In the Ukrainian city of Kherson, Ukraine's forces continue to press hard against the Russians, the official said. As an example, they inflicted damage on bridges used by the Russians. 

On Aug. 9, Ukraine bombarded Russia's Saki Air Base, located in an area of Crimea that was seized and annexed by Russia in 2014. The bombardment significantly impacted Russian airpower and personnel, the official said. 

The bombing did not involve the Army Tactical Missile System, which the United States has not supplied to Ukraine, the official said.  

That system can hurl projectiles 190 miles, which is farther than the High Mobility Artillery Rocket System rounds the U.S. is supplying to Ukraine. 

The Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant in eastern Ukraine is currently under Russian control. According to the International Atomic Energy Agency, there is no immediate threat to nuclear safety, but that could change. 

Russia continues to fire indiscriminately on Ukrainian territory, resulting in massive civilian casualties, the official said. 

"That's largely due to the indiscriminate bombing that the [Russian forces] conduct," the official said. 

Although the Russians have a significantly larger force than Ukraine, "the things going against the Russians are the continued impacts [of Ukraine's progress] on their morale, their ability to sustain themselves — all of which have been impacted by the Ukrainians' ability to get after [Russian] command and control, ammunition, sustainment and logistics locations," the official said. 

The official said that on a scale of zero to 10, the effectiveness of Ukraine's armed forces would be a 12 "just based on how impressive they've been to us in so many different ways. … They have found ways to do things that we might not have thought were possible."