they ve had logistical issues. they ve had sustainment issues. they ve run out of fuel, fuel shortages. food shortages. it speaks to problems that have slowed down this advance as well as the very stiff ukrainian resistance they have encountered as they tried to move. you want to move an army of this size, you have to sustain it. and the russians have not. why they have made that mistake is a much more difficult question. whether it s because they really thought this would be over in a matter of days as vladimir putin seemed to think, or whether their leadership isn t that good when it comes to military planning of an operation this size. regardless, that s the reality we re stuck with. now they re learning from it. a senior defense official says they will figure this out. they will solve their logistical issues. they will solve their sustainment problems. they ll solve their fuel shortages and they ll be able to keep advancing. but so far that massive column that spans some 40 miles o
setbacks that you are seeing, for example, among russian troops? well again, we don t have perfect visibility into mr. putin s planning but our assessment is that the russians have been flummoxed. they have been frustrated. they have been set back. they have been slowed by a stiff and determined ukrainian resistance. we also believe they have stumbled themselves. that they have conducted missteps. they are having sustainment problems running out of fuel, running out of food for some of their soldiers. they have beenl surprised by th manner in which and effectiveness with which the ukrainians have been defending their cities and people. the ukrainian president volodymyr zelenskyy implored president biden and the west for that matter, nato allies to establish a no-fly zone over ukraine. watch this. translator: if you can t provide a no-fly zone right now, then tell us when? if you can t give ukrainians a date when, how long do you need? how many people should be blown up? how many
the map will show that you they are not that far from their base of operations in crimea. so we ll see how this goes. they are meeting resistance in kherson and they will meet resistance in mariupol. so i think that we just need to see how this plays out. you know, i saw the comments about risk averse. i would just say that and you can see for yourself, i mean, this is not stuff that you guys aren t seeing in imagery of your own. we re seeing vehicles abandoned. we re seeing sustainment problems in fuel and food. we re seeing indications early on that though they have sophisticated combined arms
operations. i d also add, david from their base of operations in crimea. so we ll see how this goes. they re meeting resistance in mariupol. i saw the comments about risk averse. i d say that you can see for yourself. this is not stuff that you re not seeing in imagery of your own. we re seeing vehicles abandoned, we re seeing sustainment problems and fuel. not just fuel but in food. we re seeing indications here early on that though they have
these systems in the field. that s getting lost a lot in the discussion. i think also they have had significant logistics and sustainment problems. they are still having fuel problems. they re having trouble feeding their troops. definitely they did not plan for a very dynamic way of sustaining their efforts on the ground. number five here is they aren t operating jointly. they don t coordinate between air and ground and maritime the way we do in the united states military, and so we re picking up lots of tensions between commanders because they re not talking with one another, they re not coordinating their operations. lastly, if i may, and it is a long list, it is just the morale. it is a largely conscript force. they were not properly prepared and trained for this operation. many were lied to, didn t even know they were going to invade ukraine, so they re having leadership and morale, unit cohesion problems on the ground every single day. admiral, and i guess i should