Jake Sullivan made the assessment at an online media briefing on Tuesday, Polish state news agency PAP reported.
The national security adviser said Ukrainian troops were taking territory “on a “methodical, systematic basis” in their summer counteroffensive against Russia.
He added: “We do not assess that the conflict is a stalemate.“
Referring to the pace of Ukraine’s current push against Russia, which has been described as slower than the country's September 2022 counteroffensive, Sullivan said that officials “should approach the question of battlefield conduct with a level of humility,” The Hill website reported.
Sullivan told reporters: “We do our best to provide our best advice and then Ukraine makes its own sovereign decisions about how it’s going to proceed. That’s how I look at it, that’s how the president looks at it, that’s the policy of the United States.”
He said Ukraine had developed its own strategy of dealing with Russia’s heavily mined defensive lines, based on experience and the reality of combat, the PAP news agency reported.
Sullivan stated: “There is attacking and defending taking place on both sides at multiple points along a very extended front line of trace. And it is true that the Russians have been attacking up in the northeast. It is also true that the Ukrainians have been defending up in the northeast quite effectively.”
He added that the White House had observed Ukraine making gains in the south in recent days and that the Ukrainians were continuously probing the Russian lines for weaknesses while trying to carry out the fight “sustainably.”
Sullivan also said he was confident Congress would approve a request from President Joe Biden’s administration for USD 24 billion in new funding related to support for Ukraine, despite opposition from some Republican politicians.
He told reporters: “We believe that at the core, there is still a strong bipartisan foundation of support for our Ukraine policy and for supporting and defending Ukraine. And so we have communicated that to our friends in Kyiv and to our allies and partners.“
Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, 2022, launching the largest military campaign in Europe since World War II.
Wednesday is day 546 of Russia’s war on Ukraine.
(pm/gs)
Source: PAP, thehill.com
