“Now is a very, very difficult time for them,” said Bauer on television in this capital. He went on saying, “An offensive is always very complicated, it is not a piece of cake, it will never be like that.”

Earlier, representatives of U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration pointed out they found the results of the first two weeks of the known Ukrainian counteroffensive to be sobering.

Although Washington officially urges patience when talking about the outcome of the offensive, senior U.S. officials in private conversations often express concern about the slow progress.

According to the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, the Ukrainian Armed Forces have been conducting unsuccessful offensive attempts since June 4.

On June 22, Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev indicated that the loss of Ukrainian Armed Forces personnel since the onset of the counteroffensive exceeded 13,000 soldiers.

Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir Putin recently emphasized that the AFU has not been successful in any direction.

In February 2022, the Russian Federation launched a special military operation in Ukraine to defend the self-proclaimed republics of Donetsk and Luhansk, recognized by Moscow as sovereign states, against the genocide by Kiev.

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