Are having trouble dealing with areas like the donbas and mariupol, and holding those areas they had taken are still on the verge we could talk about this concerning mariupol forever, and so the entire russian advance, according to the pentagon just this morning, is going slower than they believe the russians anticipated. when defense officials talk about this, they tend to tiptoe around because they don t want to disclose their own intel sources and how much they might be listening to russian troop movements or over hearing whatever they are using, whatever methods they are using. they are careful with presenting what kind of expectation russia has, and even in the donbas where they are making some