Ukraine has announced progress in the counterattack launched by its forces near the city of Kharkiv (east of the country), and hopes that it will constitute a new stage in the war. Meanwhile, US and Western officials talked about Russian President Vladimir Putin's plans and saw that he was preparing for a long-term conflict.

Titiana Apatchenko, press spokeswoman for the 92nd Special Mechanized Brigade, the main Ukrainian force near Kharkiv, said that the Ukrainian forces have recaptured the areas: Cherkassky, Tishki, Russky Tishki, Borschova and Slobogansk, north of Kharkiv during the past days.

For his part, Yury Sachs, adviser to the Ukrainian Defense Minister, said that these successes keep Russian artillery away from reaching parts of Kharkiv;

It is the second largest Ukrainian city, located in the north-east of the country, and it has been bombed since the early days of the Russian war.

Sachs added that the operations of the Ukrainian forces around Kharkiv - especially in the north and north-east - represent a "success story" - as he put it - explaining that the Russian forces were forced to retreat.

Pushing back Russian forces after capturing the outskirts of Kharkiv from the early days of the war allows Ukrainian forces to move as far as they can hit Russia's rear supply lines and continue to push Russia's main offensive force south, Reuters said.

Donbass battles

On the other hand, the Russian Defense Ministry announced on Tuesday that its forces and the separatists loyal to it in Lugansk (eastern Ukraine) managed to penetrate the line of defense of Ukrainian forces and reach the administrative borders of the district.

Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said that 120 Ukrainian soldiers had been "neutralized" in Luhansk and 380 others in separate operations since Monday night.


Russian forces continue to launch attacks in eastern Ukraine after they abandoned their attack on the capital, Kyiv, at the end of last March, and are currently seeking to encircle Ukrainian forces in the Donbass region.

US intelligence forecast

In Washington, senior US intelligence officials reviewed their assessments of developments in Ukraine and saw the war as a dead end.

Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines said that US assessments indicate that Russian President Vladimir Putin is preparing for a long-term war in Ukraine, with the coming months likely to witness a significant and unexpected escalation in hostilities.

Haines warned - during a Senate session devoted to hearing the leaders of the intelligence services - that Russia's victory in the Donbass region may not end the war, noting that there are indications of Moscow's desire to expand the scope of its military operations.

"Given the fact that Putin faces a discrepancy between his ambition and Russia's current conventional military capabilities... this means that the next few months may push us down a more difficult path on the predictable, and may see an escalation," she said.

However, the US official said that the data available to her indicates that President Putin will not authorize the use of nuclear weapons unless he feels an existential threat to his country.

Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines and Director of Defense Intelligence General Scott Perrier (Reuters)

During the same hearing, US Defense Intelligence Agency Director General Scott Perrier said, "The Russians are not winning, the Ukrainians are not winning... (the war) has come to a bit of a dead end."

He added that so far, between 8 and 10 Russian generals were killed in this bloody war.

The United States and Europe pledged to continue supplying Kyiv with weapons and humanitarian aid.

The US House of Representatives is voting on a new draft resolution to provide $40 billion in aid to Ukraine, including massive arms shipments.

In the meantime, Mircea Gognet, Deputy Secretary-General of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), said that the Russian president had not abandoned his original plan to occupy Ukraine or overthrow its government, as he put it.

He explained - in an interview with CNN - that he agrees with the US assessments, which see a great discrepancy between Putin's level of ambition and Russia's military capabilities, which, according to him, is a cause for concern about Putin's next steps.