брифинг американского минобороныDay 82. We maintain that the Russians have now 106 total operational BTGs inside Ukraine. I would just go over some of the main highlights with you here.
82-й день. Русские ещё одну БТгруппу притащили, теперь их 106 всего.
(я кстати почитала этот институт войны, не знаю, много ли проку от их аналитики, они анализируют то, что накопали из украинских источников, и из русских. Не то что разведданные, а что нашли в сети. Но они вот уверены, что хотя русские добавляют новое мясо, и тренируют новое мясо в бОльших кол-вах, чем раньше, и наверняка хотят их всех тоже добавить, - это всё низкокачественное мясо, ещё хуже предыдущего. Сброд.)Obviously, we assess that Russian forces continue to attack Ukrainian forces in the Donbas region. They did not make significant territorial gains in that region, both sides exchanging artillery fire even over the last 24 hours.
The Russian forces seem to be focusing their efforts largely near Izyum and -- and to the north of Lyman. So the -- sort of -- if you draw a line between those two, Izyum and Lyman, to the southeast, that's where the preponderance of their efforts seem to be again over the last 24.
Очевидно, рашисты продолжают атаковать украинцев на Донбасе. Они много не оккупировали, у обеих сторон артилерийские перестрелки.
Рашисты фокусируются около Изюма и на север от Лимана.
We do continue to see the Ukrainians regain some ground around Kharkiv, even though they've been -- Kharkiv continues to be hit by airstrikes and bombardment, artillery is being used obviously in and around Kharkiv, but we assess that the Ukrainians have pushed Russian forces to within three to four kilometers of the Russian border.
We've seen some reporting out there that they've gone up to the border. We can't refute that. So as -- our general assessment is they're right near that border, in terms of pushing them up to the north. And that continues. So there is still active fighting in and around and to the north of Kharkiv. I don't have an update on how far to the east of Kharkiv Russian forces are. I don't -- I just don't have anything new on that.
Украинцы ещё больше отпихнули их от Харькова, хотя Харьков продолжают бомбить. Но украинцы их отпихнули уже к 3-4 км от рашистской границы.
Говорят, они уже дошли до границы. Мы не знаем. Но в общем украинцы их отпихивают, там бои. Не знаю, насколько они там на восток от Харькова.
Let's see. We do -- have seen -- in the last 24, we have seen some heavy fighting in the vicinity of Donetsk and we haven't talked about Donetsk very often -- but we're doing -- we are seeing some heavy fighting there near Donetsk, moving basically east to west, and we do assess that the Russian forces are making some small gains to the west of Donetsk.
And again, not entirely clear what the goal is there but I would remind you that if you look just to the west, a little bit south of west from Donetsk, you get that town of Velyka Novosilka, which is where the Russian forces have stopped advancing south of that, coming up out of Mariupol. So it could be an attempt by them to link up with their Russian forces that have sort of been stuck south of Velyka Novosilka. We don't -- again, don't know, but we are seeing that over the last 24.
Около Донецка начались бои, и рашисты продвинулись немного на запад от Донецка.
Мы не знаем, какая у них цель, но там западе от Донецка город Велика Новосилка, и там как раз застряли рашисты, которые ушли из Мариуполя. Может эти рашисты хотят к тем. Но мы точно не знаем.
It appears as if they have made no progress with their -- trying to cross over those pontoon bridges, over the Donets River, about 30 kilometers northwest of Luhansk. They have been stymied -- just about every effort by the Ukrainians.
And so it's going to be difficult for them to make any significant gains in the Donbas area until they can reposition forces or find less well-defended areas to cross that river, but they just haven't been able to make much progress.
У них так и нет прогресса в пересечении реки Донец. Украинцы блокировали все попытки.
Умный человек наверно понял бы, что надо уж уйти в какое-н другое место, может быть менее защищённое. Но то умный, а то рашисты.
We did see that, over the last 24, they -- the Russians did fire some long range missiles into or -- well, in -- in the vicinity of Lviv. It looked -- it looks as if they were trying to target the Yavoriv training area that you guys are all familiar with.
We don't have perfect BDA but what we are comfortable saying is that there was minimal damage, from what we can see, but again, I don't have perfect -- I know I said I don't have perfect visibility on -- on those strikes but they do appear to have been targeted at that training facility. And again, what we -- what we can see from our perspective is minor damage to a few buildings but nothing major.
рашисты стреляли и дальними ракетами, в район Львова. Кажется, целились в Яворив, вы знаете это место, где тренируются.
Мы точно не знаем, но похоже можно сказать, что ущерба очень мало. Повредили какие-то здания, не больше.
Q: The Brits are saying that the Russians have lost one-third of their ground force. Do you agree with that? And the Institute for the Study of War is saying that the Russians appear to have given up on their grand encirclement of the Ukrainian armed forces there in the east, and are going for much more limited encirclement in the Luhansk area. Do you agree with that?
SENIOR DEFENSE OFFICIAL: I have not seen reporting at -- from the U.S. side that we have made that assessment, that they have decided to give up on encirclement. I just have not seen that.
And look, on the ground forces, just ground forces alone of the total BTGs, let's just use BTGs as the sort of measuring stick because that's what we're using, that's how they organize their ground troops.
And we said this before, Mr. Putin has committed about 80 percent of his total BTGs to Ukraine. And there's no question that he -- of that 80 percent, you know, he has lost quite a bit. But we would still assess that of the -- you know, 140 plus BTGs that he had available to him that he still has a majority of those available to him.
So of the 140 or so plus that he dedicated to the mission, you know, he's got 106 operational in Ukraine but he doesn't have a whole lot else on the periphery of Ukraine to add into there. So there has definitely been lossage here but I'm -- I think I'm going to refrain from providing a percentage of the losses.
But again, he committed 80 percent of his total BTGs to Ukraine. Roughly more than 140 of those BTGs that represented 80 percent of his total. He's got 106 inside Ukraine right now, and not a lot left on the periphery to get in there. I think it'd just leave it at that.
- британцы говорят, рашисты потеряли треть военной силы. Вы согласны? А институт изучения войны говорит, что рашисты сдались с целями окружить большую часть донбаса и сузились до Луганской области. Вы согласны?
- я не видел в наших отчётах, чтобы кто-то оценивал, что рашисты передумали окружать большую часть.
И слушайте, про наземные войска, просто в кол-ве БТГ, потому что мы меряем в БТГ, и они так организуют свои войска.
Как мы говорили раньше, всего хутин послал 80% всех БТГ в Украину. И без вопросов, из них он уже немало потерял. Но мы оцениваем, что из 140+, что у него было, осталось ещё дохуя.
Т.е. из 140, которых он выделил на эту миссию, у него в Украине сейчас 106, но на границе с Украиной у него мало что есть, нечего добавить. Т.е. потери есть, но я не знаю в процентах.
Q: Hey, [SDO].
The Brits reported this morning they had seen the evidence that the Belarusians were trying to fix Ukrainian troops by having deployments on the northern border despite the fact that they weren't actually deploying into Ukraine, just fix them to stop from going into the Donbas. I'm just wondering if you're seeing similar indications.
SENIOR DEFENSE OFFICIAL: No, we have not seen indications of that.
- британцы говорят, что они видели, что беларусы пытаются привлечь внимание украинцев (отвлечь от Донбаса) тем, что начали разворачивать свои силы на границе. Хотя не собираются вторгаться, просто нервируют. А вы заметили такое?
- нет, не заметили
Q: Hey. Do you have any more details on the strikes in Lviv? And forgive me, I lost the call for a minute when I lost service but for this (inaudible), like, how many missiles were fired, where were they filed from, what kind they were? I know you can't give much more on BDA but just, like, some of the basics of what they actually used?
SENIOR DEFENSE OFFICIAL: Are you talking about the ones in Lviv?
Q: Yeah, yeah, Lviv, the -- against the training area.
SENIOR DEFENSE OFFICIAL: So, I mean, the -- so what -- the working level information that we have right now is about a half a dozen missiles were fired. We believe that they were -- whether they targeted the military training facility or not, they hit the military training facility, they hit a few small buildings, minimal damage.
Right now, we believe that those missiles were fired from the Black Sea, most likely from a submarine, but we don't know that for sure.
- у вас есть подробности про удары по Львову? сколько ракет? откуда? какие?
- мы думаем, может полдесятка ракет выпустили. Мы не знаем, куда они целились, но попали в тренировочный центр, в пару зданий, минимальный ущерб.
Мы думаем, что стреляли из Чёрного моря, вероятно с подводной лодки, но это не точно.
Q: Hey, [SDO]. Thank you.
I just got back, so forgive me if some of these have been gone over late last week, but a couple questions on weapons systems. The Ukrainians top of the list is HIMARS. McConnell said yesterday that the administration's considering it. Can you confirm that the administration's considering sending HIMARS? Any measurements of how the howitzers have made a difference? Ukrainians put out their first videos over the last couple days. I know we don't track them, but anything you can say about how it's making a difference?
And then connected to that, can you assess whether the Ukrainians are going to be able, as they claim, to go on counteroffensives beyond Kharkiv in the next couple weeks?
Thanks.
SENIOR DEFENSE OFFICIAL: On the HIMARS, I would just tell you, look, I mean, we're constantly talking to the Ukrainians, and I'm not going to get ahead of future security assistance packages, but we're constantly talking to them about the kinds of capabilities that they might need. And so, as we have before, you know, we're keeping that line of communication open. And as we've proven before we're willing to make adjustments if it's needed.
On the howitzers, just two points of -- two sort of points here because, again, we're not on the ground, Nick, so we don't see where every tube is, and you know, what each tube is doing on any given day, but we can assess based on our conversations with the Ukrainians, and Secretary Austin talked to Minister Reznikov yesterday, but 74 of the 90 are actually we know based on what they've told us, that 74 of those howitzers, of the M777s are forward providing long range indirect fire capability, so 74 are actually in the fight.
Now, exactly where, you know, we couldn't give you GPS coordinates on every one of them. We know some of them are being used in the fight around Kharkiv and some of them are in the Donbas, but the breakdown, I just don't have that.
And the second point I'd make on this is, you know, Minister Reznikov made it very clear to Secretary Austin in the call yesterday that the howitzers are proving very effective and are having an impact, making a difference in their fight in the Donbas, so we got that anecdotally directly from the Minister of Defense.
- У украинцев наверху списка HIMARS (системы залпового огня). Макконел вчера сказал, что администрация рассматривает их. Можете подтвердить, что рассматривает послать HIMARS? И как там наши гаубицы? помогают? Украинцы выложили одно видео пару дней назад. Мы знаем, что вы не следите, что они с ними делают, но интересно, помогают ли они.
- Про HIMARS, ну слушайте, я не буду забегать вперёд будущих поставок. Но мы постоянно разговариваем с украинцами. По-моему, понятно, что мы слушаем, что надо, и адаптируемся.
Про гаубицы, опять же, нас же там нет. Но вот они нам рассказывают, 74 штуки уже в бою.
Я не могу дать вам координаты их всех, но мы знаем, некоторые около Харькова, некоторые на Донбасе.
И министр Резников вчера Остину сказал, что гаубицы приносят много пользы, хорошо помогают.
