брифинг американского минобороныThere are now 110 operational battalion tactical groups in Ukraine -- Russia BTGs in Ukraine, 110, still split among those groupings of troops that we've talked about. The largest contingent remains in the south, but the western grouping, the central grouping and the eastern grouping each have roughly around the same number of BTGs inside Ukraine.
русских БТГ в Украине сейчас 110. Примерно половина на юге, другая половина поделена между восточными, центральными и западными группировками.
We assess that Russia has made some incremental gains in its push towards Sloviansk and Kramatorsk; not a lot but, but some incremental gains. There still is fighting for control over the town of Lyman, and we've talked about Lyman before. That town lies just to the northeast of Sloviansk and to the southeast of Izyum. So there's still a lot of activity in that northern part of the Donbas.
у рашистов есть приращение по напр. к Словянску и Краматорску, небольшое. В Лимане ещё идут бои.
And the other area that is worth talking about today is also in the northern Donbas to the -- sort of the northeast part of the -- of that Donbas area where they're fighting, and that's the line between Severa -- Severodonetsk and Lysychansk. These are two towns we haven't really talked about much, but we believe that Russian forces have been able to seize most of northeastern Severodonetsk, even though there's still fighting going on there. And it looks as if they're really trying to squeeze off Ukrainian forces that are in that -- in that area and down towards Lysychansk. So just something we're watching.
But I want to stress that the give-and-take, at least from a geographic perspective, is still small and in some ways, getting smaller now as we -- as we're now talking about even smaller towns and villages that -- but that's -- but that's kind of what we're seeing right now.
Другой район боёв - между Северодонецком и Лисичанском. Похоже, рашисты смогли захватить северовосток Северодонецка, хотя бои продолжаются. Похоже, они пытаются выщелкнуть украинцев, которые в том месте и к Лисичанску.
Но с географической точки зрения, это всё туда-сюда, маленькое продвижение.
There are -- they're -- the Russian forces are making some slow progress north and west from around Popasna. Popasna is, again, in the -- in the northeastern Donbas area, but it's most due south of Lysychansk and Severodonetsk. So still a lot of fighting around Popasna, but they -- they are moving west out of Popasna.
ещё у рашистов медленный прогресс на север и запад от Попасны.
Nothing to update, really, in the maritime environment. We continue to see that their surface ships and LSTs remain off the west coast of Crimea. There has been some reinforcement of Snake Island, for sure. They're using some of their combatants to move additional air and missile defense capabilities to Snake Island, but other than that, there really hasn't been much to talk about in the -- in the Black Sea or the maritime environment.
на море нет особых изменений, корабли торчат около Крыма. Хотя Змеиный остров они немного укрепили, притащили ракетные комплексы.
And we're also helping facilitate some training of Ukrainians for coastal defense missiles, now that the Danes are going to be contributing Harpoon -- Harpoon launchers and vehicles. So there's some training that needs to be done on how to use -- the Harpoon was not designed for coastal defense, it was designed for anti-ship warfare, ship-to-ship warfare, so this is a relatively new application of the missile, and therefore, we know that they're going to need a little bit of training on that. And so -- and so that -- that's happening right now outside of Ukraine, of course, and we'll -- just under 20 Ukrainians are going through that training right now. And we suspect that they'll probably be -- need to do more of that going forward.
Мы ещё помогаем организовать тренинг для украинцев по гарпунам, раз датчане собираются их дать. Гарпуны вообще-то не для береговой защиты, они для морских боёв, так что это довольно новое применение, так что надо немного потренироваться.
Q: Thanks, (inaudible).
(Inaudible), the Russian attacks on two cities in Donbas, are they -- are they different from previous attacks? And I guess what I'm really trying -- asking about is in the past, you've always said that we have to expect the Russians to learn from their experiences. And I'm just wondering, have they learned?
SENIOR DEFENSE OFFICIAL: The -- they are trying to overcome some of the challenges that they've had -- command and control, logistics sustainment, maneuver -- but by and large, Jim, the -- what we're seeing them do, it's -- it's -- it's a more localized effort. You know, they -- as we talked about last week, they're using smaller units to go after smaller objectives. So more of a piecemeal approach.
But they're still doing it in a fairly doctrinal way, using artillery fire in advance and then -- and then moving units only after they feel like they've softened up the target enough. But they are -- but they -- but they have the numbers on their side. And so that's why I think we continue to see this incremental progress.
But it's not -- we're not seeing a lot of -- in a -- if you're asking me -- you know, we're not really seeing a lot of innovative, creative ways of moving on targets. It's pretty much the same doctrinal approach that they've -- that they've taken in the past.
- эти атаки на города в Донбасе - они отличаются от предыдущих атак? Мне вот что интересно, вы говорили, посмотрим, научатся ли рашисты на своих ошибках. Ну и как, научились?
- ну как они научатся, они же рашисты. Они якобы пытаются, вон цели поуменьшили. Пытаются брать по кускам.
Но вообще делают то же самое - сначала пострелять артилерией, потом двигаться туда. Но у них много этого говна, вот в чём проблема, цифры на их стороне. Поэтому всё-таки постепенно продвигаются.
Но никаких там инновационных подходов или креативных атак мы не видим. Всё то же самое.