Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu promised on Friday to speed up the offensive in Ukraine, but the Russian army is unlikely to be able to do so, analysts at the Washington-based Institute for the Study of War (ISW) write..

According to their estimates, the Russians are not able to break through the Ukrainian defenses in the Izyum direction, and in Severodonetsk the fighting continues with varying degrees of success..

On Friday, Russian troops made a series of unsuccessful assault attacks south of Izyum and west of Liman and are unlikely to be able to make a significant advance towards Slavyansk.. It is possible that Russia will try to resume attacks on Barvenkovo \u200b\u200bin order to bypass Ukrainian defenses in the direction of Izyum - Slavyansk, according to ISW.

In Severodonetsk, the Russians made some progress in the east of the city, but Ukrainian troops continue localized counterattacks.

In other sectors of the front, the Russians failed to advance, including in the Kherson region.

In the ISW report for June 3, much attention is paid to the critical publication of one of the Russian military bloggers, who reported on the actual destruction of the 35th Combined Arms Army of the Russian Federation near Izyum.

His post says that at the beginning of June, the number of troops in separate battalions of the army was reduced to 12-15 people, less than a hundred combat-ready soldiers remained in the 38th and 64th motorized rifle brigades, and private military companies refuse to storm Ukrainian positions, because "