Service members of pro-Russian troops in uniforms without insignia are seen next to an armoured vehicle with the symbol “Z” painted on its side in the separatist-controlled village of Bugas during Ukraine-Russia conflict in the Donetsk region, Ukraine March 6, 2022.
Alexander Ermochenko | Reuters
WASHINGTON — Nearly all of the troops Russia amassed on Ukraine’s border are now fighting inside the country, a senior Pentagon official said Monday.
President Joe Biden has previously said Russia positioned approximately 190,000 troops outside Ukraine.
Yet even with so much manpower deployed, the two main Russian convoys outside Ukraine’s major cities of Kharkiv and Kyiv remain stalled, the official said, according to NBC News.
Invading Russian forces have struggled to overcome a weak logistical resupply system, which has resulted in scores of Russian tanks and trucks being stranded across eastern and central Ukraine because the vehicles broke down or ran out of gas.
The United States will deploy another 500 troops to Europe, bringing the total number of American forces on the continent to more than 100,000, the senior defense official said.
In recent weeks, thousands of these troops have taken up positions in countries along NATO’s eastern flank, among them Poland, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia.
Still, Russia’s logistical problems on the ground haven’t stopped it from pummeling Ukraine with heavy artillery. To date, the official said Monday that Russian forces have fired more than 625 missiles at Ukrainian targets.
The missiles have destroyed residential buildings and city centers across the country, from the coastal city of Mariupol in southeastern Ukraine to the suburbs of Kyiv in the north.
Despite the failure of Russian forces to accomplish their primary objectives so far of toppling Kyiv and Kharkiv, the official said the United States has no indications that the Kremlin is preparing to move additional Russian active duty troops to the front.
Still, the senior defense aide cautioned that Putin still has “an awful lot” of personnel and firepower available to him.
