US to continue to help Ukraine for greater progress in counteroffensive – White House

The United States is in regular contact with Ukraine and will continue to provide support for the success of its counteroffensive against Russian forces.

Source: John Kirby, Coordinator for Strategic Communications at the National Security Council in the White House, at a briefing on Friday; European Pravda reports with reference to CNN

Kirby noted that US officials are in constant contact with their Ukrainian counterparts regarding the counteroffensive.

Quote: "They're keeping us apprised — and we continue to do what we will what we can do to help them in counteroffensive, whether that's through training, and as you know, they are still getting brigade level training, or the additional capabilities and certainly, advice and information," he said.

The White House representative emphasised that the decision on the pace and direction of the offensive against Russian positions is made by the Ukrainian side.

Quote: "[Ukrainian forces – ed.] have made some progress. And they have themselves spoken to the fact that it’s not as much as they would have liked, but again, we’re focused on making sure that they have what they need and will continue to do that," Kirby added.

Earlier, The New York Times reported that the administration of the US president unofficially said that the Ukrainian counteroffensive started slowly and its results in the first few weeks were "sobering", but they are not in a hurry to draw conclusions.   

In an interview with The Washington Post published on Friday, Valerii Zaluzhnyi, Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, said that soldiers pay in blood for the liberation of every metre of Ukrainian land, so he is annoyed by other people's comments that the counteroffensive is slower than expected.

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