The United States assures that Putin has deployed 90 percent of its combat capacity in Ukraine

Live | Crisis in Ukraine

Live | Crisis in Ukraine

MADRID, March 4. (EUROPE PRESS) –

The US Department of Defense has claimed that Russia is targeting residential areas in Ukraine, although it cannot determine “the degree of intentionality” of the attacks, noting that Russian President Vladimir Putin has put 90 percent of its combat capacity in the country.

“(The Russians) are attacking residential areas. There is no question about that. The degree to which that is intentional, and intentionally accurate, in that sense, is difficult for us to assess,” a senior US official stressed, adding that this 90 percent “is the combat power they had mustered to execute this plan.”

Regarding the Russian advances on Ukrainian territory, he confirmed that “there is no naval activity” or “no movement by the Russians in Odessa at the moment”, although he specified that “they are observing” the situation “closely”, as collected by the State Department.

The senior US official has said that the United States cannot “independently confirm” reports of possible landings by Russian amphibious ships in the area, although he stressed that “it does not mean that they are not happening.”

At the same time, “they are not in a position to verify” that Kherson is under Russian control, despite the fact that local authorities have already reported talks between the city’s mayor and Russian troops.

Thus, he explained that “the possible result for the Russians would be to move from Kherson” to Mykolaiv to “advance and” position themselves northeast of Odessa “, although for the moment they have not seen “nothing” in the maritime environment near the port city on the shores of the Black Sea.

“In the southeast, our assessment is that Mariupol is still under Ukrainian control, although we have seen and are observing Russian forces advancing on Mariupol with, as I said yesterday, the apparent intention of isolating the city,” he added.

“In Kharkov, we would assess that the Russian forces now appear to be on the outskirts of the city, very close to the ring road. And again the shelling is increasing there. In Chernigov we would assess that they remain stalled to the north and northeast,” he added.

Regarding possible advances in Kiev, he stressed that the United States “has no reason to doubt the Ukrainian assertions that the Armed Forces contributed to the stagnation — the Russian column located on the outskirts of the city — by attacking,” according to said the senior US official at a press conference.

“They are still approximately 25 kilometers north of the city, which is where they were about two to three days ago when we spoke,” he said.

“We cannot confirm the reports of the use of cluster munitions. We cannot confirm the reports of the presence or use of thermobaric weapons. We still assess that the convoy that everyone has focused on is stalled,” he also stressed.

For his part, the Pentagon spokesman, John Kirby, has pointed out that the Ukrainians “are fighting bravely in the streets and outside their cities” and they do so “in a very creative way”, according to the US network CNN.