Despite the capture of individual settlements, the Russian army's offensive in eastern Ukraine cannot be called successful. The invaders suffered significant losses in this area and failed to fulfill the tasks set at the beginning of the offensive. This is stated in a report from the Pentagon.

An unnamed senior U.S. military official also noted during the briefing that the Russians were conducting an offensive in the Luhansk and Donetsk regions not on schedule.

According to him, Russian troops are making very gradual, limited and high-cost progress in certain small areas of the Donbas, they are far behind their own schedule and cannot achieve their goals.

In addition, he stressed that in recent weeks the AFU has begun to inflict tangible counterattacks on the enemy in response. In particular, on Russian ammunition depots. To a large extent, the US attributes the success of the Ukrainian military to the effective use of MLRS delivered by the allies.

Earlier, experts from the Institute for the Study of War suggested that the occupiers had taken an operational pause to restore the combat effectiveness of their formations. The tactical limited offensive actions in Donbass are explained by fears of counterattacks by the Ukrainian Armed Forces.