Izium, Ukraine.Photo: JUAN BARRETO/AFP via Getty
PresidentJoe Bidenisn’t ready to speculate on the state of the war in Ukraine.
Asked Tuesday evening if the recentliberation of key Ukrainian citiesmarks a turning point in Russia’s invasion, Biden said the question is “unanswerable right now.”
“It’s clear the Ukrainians have made significant progress,” he said, “but I think it’s going to be a long haul.”
For months, reports have claimed that Russian soldiers aresuffering from exhaustionand alack of resources. But U.S. officials are cautious about applying anecdotes to the larger picture, noting that war is unpredictable and onlyVladimir PutinandVolodymyr Zelenskyycan speak to the positions their nations are in.
“They have left fighting positions. They have left supplies. They’re calling it a repositioning, but it’s certainly — they have withdrawn in the face of Ukrainian Armed Forces that are clearly on the offense.”
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“They clearly still have a military capable of inflicting great damage and casualties. And we’ve seen that, sadly, to some effect in Ukraine,” he said. “It’s still a very large and very powerful military, and Mr. Putin still has an awful lot of military capacity left at his disposal — not just to be used in Ukraine, but potentially elsewhere.”
source: people.com
