Top NATO official praises Ukrainian counteroffensive
Photo: EPA
Landmines and other obstacles complicate Ukraine's counteroffensive against the Russian army, but Ukrainian forces are right to proceed with caution, NATO's top military official said on Monday.
Reuters reports that the head of the NATO Military Committee, Admiral Rob Bauer.
"The counteroffensive, it is difficult," Admiral Rob Bauer, a Dutch military officer, told reporters at NATO headquarters in Brussels. "People should never think that this is an easy walk over. It will never be."
Ukrainian troops are facing defensive obstacles up to 30 kilometers deep as they try to break through Russian lines, Bauer said, drawing on historical comparisons.
"We saw in Normandy in the Second World War that it took seven, eight, nine weeks for the allies to actually break through the defensive lines of the Germans. And so, it is not a surprise that it is not going fast," he added.
Bauer's comments echo those of General Mark Milley, the top US military officer, who said Friday that the counteroffensive would be very difficult, very long, and "very, very bloody."
Bauer said Ukrainian forces were right to proceed cautiously to avoid heavy casualties as they tried to push forward.
"It is extremely difficult, this type of operation, and I think the way they do it is commendable," he said.
He emphasized that Ukrainian forces should not be pressured or criticized for not advancing faster. "This is a very, very difficult time for them," Bauer said.
Earlier, the White House stated that the US is in regular contact with Ukraine and will continue to provide support so that its counteroffensive actions against Russian troops succeed.
Background
American experts believe that the military operations around Bakhmut in the Donetsk region can turn out for the Russian command to be either a withdrawal of invaders from the south of Ukraine or a risk in the Kherson and Luhansk regions.
As Rubryka reported, Ukrainian defenders have stepped up offensive actions over the past month in the Melitopol, Berdoansk, and Bakhmut directions. The Armed Forces liberated eight settlements in the Zaporizhzhia and Donetsk regions.
The military of the Armed Forces of Ukraine has continued to put pressure on the Russian army in the temporarily captured territories of the south of Ukraine. The occupying military may soon make another "gesture of goodwill."
The spokesperson of the South Operational Command, Natalia Humeniuk, reported that on the left bank of the Dnipro River, in the area of the Antonivka bridge near Kherson, heavy fighting continues between the Ukrainian military and units of the occupying army of the Russian Federation.
Deputy Minister Maliar said the Armed Forces liberated more than 28 square kilometers south of Ukraine in a week. The Armed Forces destroyed more than 90 places of concentration of the occupiers in a week.
