There are now 110 operational Russian battalions of tactical groups (BTGs) in Ukraine, an increase from the 97 BTGs the US says were in Ukraine on May 9, a senior US defense official told reporters on Thursday. That’s an increase of about 13 BTGs in about two and a half weeks.
“The largest contingent remains in the south. But the western group, the central group and the eastern group each have about the same number of BTGs in Ukraine,” the official said.
Russian forces have made “some incremental gains” in their pursuit of Sloviansk and Kramatorsk, the official added, “not much, but some incremental gains.”
Near Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, the US estimates that Ukrainians have “continued to push Russian troops further away” in a range from “a few kilometers to more than 10 kilometers inside the Russian border.” the official said, “so no. big change there.”
Meanwhile, 85 of the M-777 howitzers the US has delivered to Ukraine over the course of the last three military assistance packages are “forward”, meaning they are being used on the war’s front lines, the official told reporters on Thursday.
Of the 209,000 155mm projectiles promised to Ukraine from the US, 190,000 have been transferred to Ukraine, the official added.
Nine of the total of 11 Mi-17 helicopters promised to Ukraine by the US have been transferred to Ukraine. The last two helicopters will arrive “later this month or very early in June,” the official said.
US and NATO allies continue to train Ukrainian soldiers on US and NATO weapon systems outside Ukraine, the official added. 419 Ukrainian soldiers have completed M-777 howitzer training, about 30 Ukrainians have completed the basic howitzer maintenance course and another 17 have completed the more advanced 14-day maintenance course for the howitzer systems, the official continued.
About 20 Ukrainian soldiers are completing the second iteration of training on the Phoenix Ghost Unmanned Aerial Systems, or drones, the US has supplied to Ukraine, the official added.
The US is also “helping to facilitate training” for Ukrainians on coastal defense missiles now that Denmark has agreed to supply harpoon launchers and vehicles to Ukraine, the official said.
“Some of the training that needs to be done on how to use the harpoon wasn’t designed for coastal defense, it was designed for anti-ship warfare, ship-to-ship warfare, so this is a relatively new application of the missile, and so we know that they need a little training for that,” the official said.
