брифинг американского минобороныwe can report that there are now 92 operational battalion tactical groups from the Russians inside Ukraine, so an increase over the last time you and I had a chance to talk. We would assess that Russian forces are making slow and uneven and, frankly, we would describe it as incremental progress in the Donbas. Some advances east of Izyum and to the south a little bit, but there has been continued pushback by the Ukrainians since, so there's a lot of, still, back-and-forth in the Donbas in terms of territory gained and/or lost by, frankly, both sides. So not a huge difference in the picture on the ground in the Donbas.
Сейчас у рашистов 92 БТГ в Украине, ещё нагнали то есть с прошлого раза. Прогресс у рашистов медленный, неровный и в общем отсутствует - тут захватили, там потеряли. Практически нет изменений.
The Russians have not overcome all their logistics and sustainment challenges, and we assess that they're only able -- because they still haven't solved all their logistics problems -- just from a logistics perspective alone, not counting the Ukrainian resistance, which remains active, but just from logistics alone, they're only able to sustain several kilometers or so progress on any given day, just because they don't want to run out too far ahead of their logistics and sustainment lines. So they're limited not only, again, by the fighting and by Ukrainian resistance, but by their still-continued logistics problems.
логистических проблем они не решили, естественно, так что ещё и из-за этого нет прогресса. Т.е. украинцы их не пускают, но не только это, ещё их не пускает страх, оказаться "как в прошлый раз", когда они растянулись на много километров и застряли без снабжения. Теперь они боятся далеко от границы отходить!
in the south we can report that we have seen Russian forces departing the Mariupol area and moving to the northwest, sort of in the direction of the Zaporizhzhia Oblast. That doesn't mean that we assess that they have Mariupol. As I've said earlier, they are continuing to pound Mariupol with strikes, both airstrikes and missile strikes. You don't do that if you think it belongs to you. But they are moving forces now to the northwest. I couldn't give you an estimate, guys, on, like, how many that is and how far they've gotten. We're just picking up these indications, and I wanted to make sure that, you know, I let you know that. But I'm not able to quantify that. We're just beginning to see them now move some of their forces away from Mariupol and head up towards the northwest.
на юге мы видим, что они начали отводить силы от Мариуполя, двигаются на северо-запад, типа по напр. к Запорожкской обл. Это не значит, что они захватили Мариуполь. Они продолжают его бомбить с самолётов и ракетами. Это не то, что ты делаешь с городом, который типа "твой". Но силы они начали отводить. Не могу пока хорошенько оценить сколько, но мы видим, что что-то началось.
Just on the issue of security assistance, we would now assess that more than 60 percent of the M777 howitzers that were committed in both PDA 7 and 8, so of the 90, have now been transferred to the Ukrainian military in just the last week. And yesterday, the Pentagon press secretary said it was more than 50, and we would say more than 60 percent now have been transferred to Ukraine. The first group of trainers are back in Ukraine. The second group of trainers is now undergoing their training.
уже 60% гаубиц переправлено в Украину, и первая группа обученных людей уже тоже вернулась в Украину, и мы начинаем тренировать вторую группу.
And there is additional training going on outside of Ukraine on the Q-64 mobile radar system that we announced in PDA-7. There's some training going on there. That'll be about a week -- again, it's being held outside of Ukraine and there's some training that started yesterday, as well, five day training for more than 50 Ukrainian soldiers on the M113, the armored personnel carrier, just to make sure they're familiar with how to use that -- with that system.
ещё продолжается обучение украинцев пользоваться радарными системами, оно займёт неделю. Ещё вчера начался тренинг 50 украинцев как пользоваться M113, БТР, это пять дней.
Q: Thank you so much for taking my question. In terms of the Russian Black Fleet staying farther away from Ukraine. What does this do to the Russians' plan for some of the southern border?
SENIOR DEFENSE OFFICIAL: Yeah, it's a difficult question to answer, Heather, because again, we don't have visibility into their planning assumptions. They still have -- I mean, let's remember now that certainly they have a presence in Crimea and they have now a presence in the south of Ukraine. It's uneven, to be sure, but they have a presence there, Melitopol and Berdyansk, up near Zaporizhzhya, and out towards Kherson.
And largely, we assess that, you know, while there's still activity in Kherson -- I mean, the Russians certainly have a strong presence there. So, as far west as Kherson, they haven't taken Mykolayiv, but as far west as Kherson, maybe, a little bit, beyond that, and as far east as to the north of Mariupol, and then if you go up to the north around Zaporizhzhya, if you, kind of, draw that box, I mean, those are areas in the south that are largely in Russian control. That's not insignificant.
And so what we've seen them do with their Navy in the Sea of Azov is largely two things, one, use their cruise missile capability to strike targets inside Ukraine; and, two, to resupply and reinforce ground forces there.
You know, when we saw the LST sink at the pier in Berdyansk, that was what that LST was designed to do, not put ashore Marines but put ashore, you know, food and ammunition. So, largely, the Navy there in the Sea of Azov is really designed to just resupply their forces in the south.
And then, in the Black Sea, they are not -- it is largely show of force activity. They are not really conducting a lot of kinetic maritime activity in the Black Sea. I mean, they're capable of doing some cruise missile launches. But we're just not seeing imminent indications of, like, an amphibious assault or all-out naval barrage on Odessa.
Again, we think the presence in the Black Sea largely is designed to give pause to the Ukrainians that are in the South near Odessa and Mykolayiv, so that they don't leave.
- рашистский флот - нафига он им нужен? они его планируют как-то использовать на южной границе?
- трудный вопрос, откуда мы знаем, что в тупых башках. Они конечно плотно сидят в Крыму и в общем-то сидят в Мелитополе, Бердянске, Херсоне. Хотя под Херсоном идут бои, рашисты там довольно уверенно сидят.
Но нафига им ихний "флот" в Азове? Что они с ним делают - только стреляют с кораблей по Украине и подвозят снабжение.
Помните, в Бердянске один кораблю утонул? вот он для этого и был предназначен - тонуть, т.е. он был предназначен подвозить снабжение. Не десант, а жратву и патроны.
А "флот" в Чорном море - они вообще ничо не делают. Как сдриснули подальше от Одесы, так и стоят там, типа грозно. Они конечно могут ракеты запускать. Но больше ничего не делают. Только типа грозно стоят и "никого не пускают".
Q:
You know, talking about training, and then onerous and long-term training, I wondered if you can address at Ramstein was there talk about new air defense systems, and even American combat jets like the Ukrainians have asked for in recent days?
They've asked for (Inaudible), they've asked for F-15s, F-16s, F-18s. Can you address that directly? Was it discussed, is it off the table because of training or, if not, what other reasons would it be?
SENIOR DEFENSE OFFICIAL:
I'm not going to speculate about future aircraft deliveries one way or the other. Again, this is an Air Force that relies principally on old Soviet aircraft, that's what they're used to flying, that's what they've got in their fleet.
That's what we're trying to help them keep in the air and our sense from the meeting in Kyiv was that President Zelensky was very grateful for the support that he's getting from the United States.
- интересно про обучение, в рамштайне были разговоры про противовоздушные системы и даже про американские бомбардировщики, которых украинцы просили. Они просили F-15s, F-16s, F-18s. Что вы скажете? Это обсуждалось или это не обсуждается из-за обучения, или из-за других причин?
- я не хочу предполагать про какие-то будущие поставки самолётов. Их воздушные силы в общем-то полагаются на совецкие самолёты.
И вот мы им помогали с совецкими самолётами, и Зеленский нам сказал спасибо.
Q:
And also, very quickly, wondering if you can share if there have been any developments with regards to the foreign mercenaries that were being recruited and rumored to be brought in by Russia? Are there Syrian nationals, Libyan nationals, nationals from African countries in Russia as part of the Russian effort or now in Ukraine as part of the Russian effort?
SENIOR DEFENSE OFFICIAL: We know that the Wagner Group is in the Donbas and that they have recruited some from folks from the Middle East and from North Africa. I don't know the status of the vaunted 16,000 that the Russians said they were going to recruit. I just don't have an indication that they're there in any great number.
-русские хвастались, что хотят привлечь иностранных наёмников, сирийцев, ливийцеы - они присутствуют в Украине?
- мы знаем, что группа вагнера набирала кого-то на ближнем востоке и из африки, но чтоб - как рашисты хвастались - 16 тыщ - мы что-то не наблюдаем прям такого количества.
