witness advisely. you could call law enforcement who could summarize vast amounts of information and all signs are pointing to us getting word of this indictment quickly, if not immediately after it is informed. and volodymyr zelenskyy top met military commanders to discuss their counter offensive. he acknowledged that beating the russians back has not been easy. and is progressing much slower than some, including the u.s. had hoped. ukraine forces are tasked with breaking through russia s multi layer defensive lines in the eastern an southern part of the country. those lines are riddled with tens of thousands of mines and vast networks of trenches like you saw in world war i. nick paton walsh is on the front where attacks are ramping up and a brief warning now, this viewer may be disturbing for some viewers. the brutal work here, the
are describing to our very own jim sciutto an increasingly sobering assessment about ukrainian force s ability to retake significant amounts of territory. they continue to have difficulty breaking through russia s multilayer defensive line it s in east and south which are marked by tens of thousands of mines and vast networks of trenches. ukrainian forces have taken major losses, leading ukrainian commanders to hold back some units to regroup and reduce casualties. and these latest assessments are jor change from the optimism at the start of the counteroffensive jim is going to bealking more about this with neral wesley clark here in just a moment. but first, despite the sobering assessments on the counteroffensive, ukraine is claiming some advances in the zaporizhzhia region. cnn s nick paton walsh is there. you have president zelenskyy, nick, saying the counteroffensive is probably happening slower than some had hoped. so get something word of that even from him. reporter: yeah, lo
i know it takes time to train up on these things. it took time to get approval for these tanks, overcoming opposition in the u.s., but the ukrainians are in the midst of the counteroffensive right now. early fall is quite a long timeline. is that too late? it s never too late, but the abrams tank is a phenomenal piece. the ukrainians will take great use of it. it s approximately 31 tanks, but the battalion-sized force. is that sufficient to do sufficient damage to turn the tide of the offensive? no one really knows, but i would tell you any type of capability like this is going to be a plus. again, as you and i have discussed before, jim, these types of enablers need to be used synchronously with everything else out there in terms of great intelligence, long-range buyers, maneuver logistics, et cetera. then, these tanks are pretty tough to maintain it it s going to come with its own ammunition, maintenance package, spare parts, that kind of stuff. the difficulty for ukrainian force