Putin has failed across the board during 10 months of the war against Ukraine, US Army Gen. Mark A. Milley said.
The Ukrainians defeated the initial attack on Kyiv and then more than held their own in the battles in the eastern part of the nation. Ukrainian forces launched a counterattack in Kharkiv that drove the Russians back from the second-largest city in the country and then pushed the Russians out of the strategic city of Kherson, Milley said. But “there’s still a significant amount of fighting to go,” Milley said.
The missile attacks are attacks on civilians. “That’s just flat out unacceptable,” he said. “What they’re trying to do is break the back, break the will, of the Ukrainian people. What you’ll see is it’s not breaking the back but increasing the level of resilience and resistance on part of the Ukrainian people.”
“Russia has made this catastrophic mistake,” Royal Navy Adm. Sir Tony Radakin, the United Kingdom’s chief of defense staff, said.
Not only has the attack galvanized Ukrainian resistance. But it has provoked “a phenomenal reaction” from nations around the world. “For those of us that are in Europe, we’ve got to pay tribute to the extraordinary support that America has provided, once again, to Europe,” the admiral said.
