Russian forces meeting ‘strong and wide’ Ukraine resistance

According to United States military information, Russia now has at least 50 percent of its estimated 150,000-strong invasion force inside Ukraine.

Analysts interviewed suggested the Russian military may have been caught off-guard by the level of pushback by Ukrainian fighters, and more troops would likely enter the fray in the coming days.

“Russia is clearly facing setbacks that it did not expect. It’s taking casualties and Ukraine is taking prisoners, including some quite senior, at least one, possibly two, brigade commanders,” said Nigel Gould-Davies from the International Institute for Strategic Studies.

“So Russia will be motivated now to accelerate the forces that it brings to this conflict. So far, it’s been using about half of the forces it has mobilised and prepared for this so in numerical terms.

“It’s quite clear that Russia has a very significant advantage. But the really impressive aspect of Ukraine’s resistance so far is how strong and how wide it has been,” said Gould-Davis, a former United Kingdom ambassador to Belarus.

Tom Bullock, an open source intelligence analyst for intelligence information firm Janes, said Russian forces so far have not been able to capitalise on their vastly superior military advantage.

He said fighting has slowed around major cities after Russian troops and equipment stormed the country on Thursday.

“The trend we are seeing is that the Russians are incurring losses, they are losing equipment and definitely losing soldiers. But so are the Ukrainians. In some places such as the south it appears the losses are heavier on the Ukrainian side.

“It does appear as though the Russians were expecting less resistance from the Ukrainians when they entered. That clearly hasn’t been the case,” Bullock told Al Jazeera.

‘Lack of momentum’

Troops and equipment are making slow progress on Moscow’s original three-front thrust because of “very determined resistance”, an American defence official told reporters on condition of anonymity to discuss internal US assessments.

“We have indications that the Russians are increasingly frustrated by their lack of momentum over the last 24 hours, particularly in the north parts of Ukraine,” the official said.

Al Jazeera was not able to independently verify the claim.

Russia said its forces pursued their advance after claiming to have paused their assault on Ukraine following an order from President Vladimir Putin. The Russian president subsequently ordered the attack to resume after Kyiv ignored Moscow’s call for negotiations. A Ukrainian official denied Kyiv had rejected talks.

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