Gen. Mark Milley made the assessment in an interview with British broadcaster the BBC on Sunday.
America’s top-ranking military officer said: "There's still a reasonable amount of time, probably about 30 to 45 days' worth of fighting weather left, so the Ukrainians aren't done.”
He added: "There's battles not done... they haven't finished the fighting part of what they're trying to accomplish."
Gen. Milley said that colder weather would make it harder for Ukraine’s army to manoeuvre.
The chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff assessed: “"There's still heavy fighting going on. The Ukrainians are still plugging away with steady progress."
America’s top general said that Ukraine’s counteroffensive had gone “more slowly than expected,” but stressed that Kyiv’s forces were “progressing at a very steady pace through the Russian front lines.”
According to Ukraine’s generals, Kyiv’s forces “have breached Russia's formidable first line of defences in the south,” the BBC reported.
Meanwhile, Britain’s chief of defence staff, Admiral Sir Tony Radakin, said that “Ukraine is winning and Russia is losing.”
He told the BBC: “The aim of Russia was to subjugate Ukraine and to put it under Russia's control. That has not happened and it never will happen, and that's why Ukraine is winning.”
Radakin added that Ukraine was making progress in liberating its territory and had so far retaken 50 percent of the ground Russia captured, the BBC reported.
Monday is day 565 of Russia’s war on Ukraine.
Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, 2022, launching the largest military campaign in Europe since World War II.
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Source: PAP, BBC, The Guardian