they would be half across ukraine by now. the toll is so severe on the russian side according to ukraine yian officials, regular troops are back filling with infantry and tank units supported by artillery and aircraft. if russia took bakhmut it would change little but be a symbolic victory as russia struggles to keep them at bay. urging to speed up military aid comparing the flight to goliath taking on david. we need to hurry up. we need the speed, speed of our agreements. speed of our delivery to strengthen our speed of decisions to limit russian pote potential. reporter: that russian potential is still significant with hundreds of thousands of mobilized troops believed to be in reserve and vladimir putin
have been taken by ukrainian forces. the russian military pointing to the superiority of the ukrainian tank units. this just a day after a value statement from the russian defense ministry pointing to ukrainian superiority in the east. so it s very clear here that ukraine has the momentum in this fight and russia is scrambling. at the same time, it s important to note that as we re talking about these liberated areas, many of them are left absolutely devastated by russian occupation. we were in a village over the weekend, we re speaking to one villager who described just the absolute misery of living under russian occupation and intense bombardment, describing a 30-foot hole that was left in
jonathan, three months to the day since this war began, and the fighting is most intense in that donbas region, as you talk about. and especially in donetsk, the city right now seeming to be the linchpin in the battle there. we know that that city is being attacked from four different sides by russian troops right now. they are using missiles fired from submarines, and ships, in the ocean, they re using runs by russian air patrols, they re also on the ground, with tank units, as well as howitzers and so they are relentlessly trying to take control of one of the few cities left in that region, that is still under ukraine control. and the ukraine fighters there have done heroic work to keep them out of the central city there, and that battle does continue. one of the governors in the region says that russian troops
it is. russian forces according to president zelenskyy have started today the battle for donbas. what does that battle look like? obviously, you know, we heard a lot about it being much more heavy artillery, tanks over long, open plains. some people compared it to a world war ii-style battle. it s going to be far more conventional than what we ve seen to date up in the kyiv area and certainly kharkiv where the russians tried to walk into issue terrain and got completely waxed. this will be open terrain, and it will come in phases. the russians are not unlike the soviets in that when you see artillery, you can t get enough of it from the russians. they will pound and pound and pound and try to shake the conditions for the movement of their heavy units, which is their tank units and their infantry units. that s going to come. the ukrainians have some capabilities they ve demonstrated to engage tactically with the russian
squeak through most of ukraine. the losses will be significant for the russian military, it is a conscript military they don t have the motivation, some leads on troops they are reports that they don t know why they are there fighting. morale is not great. but you can expect fierce fighting for about half the ukrainian military in the eastern part of the country and that s wasting this double envelopment we have the tank units from the north and the area. you ll start to start seeing them move south and then. you ll start seeing forces from the south and some of those amphibious forces that landed, they are start moving north, they are going to meet up and then they re going to move to the east and there s can be very vicious fighting with the ukrainian military because half the ukrainian armed forces are in that area.