Russian troops have not made the desired progress in Donbass and southern Ukraine and have met stiff Ukrainian resistance at every turn, Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said..

“All I can tell you is that the Russians have not made the progress in Donbas and the south that we believe they wanted to make.”. We believe they are behind schedule; we think the process is slow. And at every step they met tough Ukrainian resistance. What we're focusing on is keeping that resistance as tough as possible,"

He noted that, according to the Pentagon, there are several reasons for this.. "

Kirby stressed that the second important reason is the resistance of the Ukrainians.. " They know it. And they know where to be. And they know what to speak with,"

The weather also has an effect, according to a Pentagon spokesman.. " This part of Ukraine is flat, there is a lot of farmland. I've been described a bit like Kansas. This time of the year in the spring there is just a lot of rain and mud.. And it also slowed down the Russians a bit,"

In addition, he drew attention to the fact that the Russians still have not overcome the problems of leadership and unit cohesion that they faced earlier.. " And leadership problems, poor command and control they didn't solve.

We see that they are trying and trying to overcome some of these problems, but it is not at all clear what they have succeeded in,"

At the same time, Kirby added that the Russians had a lot of strength left, a lot of firepower..

" And that is why, and we have been saying this all the time, that this could end in a protracted battle in the Donbass,"

Kirby noted that this is why the US is focused every day on making sure it can give the Ukrainians the tools and weapons they need, as well as the training that some of those tools may require, to succeed..