Russia has majority of arms capability available in Ukraine: Pentagon
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Despite the many western sanctions imposed on Russia, it is still advancing in Ukraine, and its military forces are far from being depleted, a US official revealed.
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Russian T-72 B3 tanks in the vicinity of the encircled city of Mariupol
Russia still has "the vast majority" of its arms capability in Ukraine to allow Moscow to continue its special military operation in the country, while Ukrainians "do not show any signs of stopping their resistance," a senior Pentagon official said Monday.
"Today, we assess Russian combat power [in Ukraine] at just below 90% [of the total number committed to the operation], … and they just have a lot available to them," the official told a press briefing.
"Mr. Putin has arranged in impressive alignment of combined arms capability that he still has the vast majority available to him," he added.
The official also revealed that, according to US data, Russia still had more than half of its air-launch cruise missile capability available to it in Ukraine, underlining that Moscow had committed more than 60% of its fixed and rotary wing capabilities to the operation in Ukraine.
As per the DoD official, Russia launched nearly 1,100 missiles of different types since the beginning of its operation nearly a month ago.
Meanwhile, the official added, the Ukrainians are showing "no signs" of slowing down their offensive on the Russians.
Russia's said operation took place for several reasons, including NATO's eastward expansion. Other reasons were the Ukrainian shelling of Donbass and the killing of the people of the Donetsk People's Republic and Lugansk People's Republic, in addition to Moscow wanting to "denazify" and demilitarize Ukraine.
Following Russia's operation, the US and its allies responded by rolling out comprehensive sanctions, including restrictions on the Russian central bank, export control measures, SWIFT cutoff for select banks, and closure of airspace to all Russian flights. Many of their companies have suspended their Russian operations.
However, the economic sanctions on Russia have had their fair share of repercussions on the West, especially the United States, with US oil reaching all-time high prices after President Joe Biden announced that his country was banning the import of Russian oil, liquified natural gas, and coal.
