The US Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman, General Mark A. Milley, does not believe it is possible to talk about the inevitability of the Russian seizure of the entire Donbas.
A war of attrition is taking place in the Donbas, similar to the First World War.
General Mark Milley, Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, said this at a briefing after a meeting of the Contact Group on Defense Support to Ukraine (Rammstein-3) in Brussels.
In particular, he was asked if he believes strengthening Russian control in eastern Ukraine is inevitable.
Milley recalled that a full-scale war began on February 24, Russian troops were defeated near Kyiv, and after that, they were transferred to the Donbas.
According to him, the most significant hostilities are now taking place in the Luhansk region, particularly in ​​the city of Severodonetsk.
“Now, three-quarters of the city of Severodonetsk has been captured by Russian forces, but the Ukrainians are fighting them street by street, house by house. And it's not a done deal. There is no inevitability in war. The war has many twists and turns. Therefore, I would not say that this is inevitable," Milley stressed.
At the same time, he acknowledged that so far, Russian troops are superior to Ukrainian troops in terms of the balance of forces, including in the number of artillery, since the occupiers have much more such systems.
At the same time, according to him, Russian troops face many problems, including in the issue of command and control, logistics, morale, and leadership.
Milley stressed that the main battle for Donbas has been going on since April 16, and the advance of Russian troops is very slow. According to him, there is "a very tough war of attrition, almost like during the First World War, and the Russians have a huge number of victims."
