In view of Ukraine’s military successes, the US government sees a new dynamic in the war with Russia. “I think what you’re seeing is certainly a shift, a momentum in Ukraine’s armed forces, particularly in the north,” National Security Council communications director John Kirby said in Washington on Tuesday. However, he wants to leave it up to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to decide whether a turning point has actually been reached.
“I don’t want to speak for the foreign military, but I think in the north we saw the Russians evacuate their defensive positions and retreat.”, Kirby continued. The Russians would have abandoned their fighting positions and left their supplies behind. “They call it a repositioning, but it is certain that they retreated in the face of Ukrainian forces clearly on the offensive.” At the same time, Kirby stressed that Russia remains at great military capability.
Referring to the fighting between Armenia and Azerbaijan in the South Caucasus, Kirby said it was difficult to talk about a motivation for the conflict to flare up again. Russia is traditionally seen as Armenia’s protecting power in the Caucasus. However, the Russian military is tied down because of the war of aggression in Ukraine that has been going on for six months. It is therefore possible that some leaders think that Russia is busy elsewhere, Kirby said when asked if Azerbaijan was currently taking advantage of this. “But here, too, we should be careful with speculation.”
