London, June 3 (FN Agency) The UK Defence Ministry on Friday said Russia controls over 90 per cent of Luhansk Oblast of Ukraine and is likely to complete control in the next two weeks. Luhansk Oblast is the easternmost administrative region of Ukraine. The UK ministry said Russian forces failed to achieve their initial objectives to seize the Ukrainian capital city Kyiv and centres of government.
“Staunch Ukrainian resistance and the failure to secure Hostomel airfield in the first 24 hours led to Russian offensive operations being repulsed,” the ministry said in a series of tweets. “Following the failure of the initial plan, through false planning assumptions and poor tactical execution, Russia adapted its operational design to focus on the Donbas”. The ministry said that Russia is now achieving “tactical success” in the Donbas. “Russian forces have generated and maintained momentum and currently appear to hold the initiative over Ukrainian opposition,” it said.
The UK said Russia has attained these “recent tactical” successes in Ukraine at “significant resource cost”. “Russia controls over 90% of Luhansk Oblast and is likely to complete control in the next two weeks. Russia has achieved these recent tactical successes at significant resource cost, and by concentrating force and fires on a single part of the overall campaign.,” the ministry said. “Russia has not been able to generate manoeuvre or movement on other fronts or axes, all of which have transitioned to the defensive,” it said.
The ministry said continued huge investment of manpower and equipment will be required for Russia in order to get any success. “Measured against Russia’s original plan, none of the strategic objectives have been achieved. In order for Russia to achieve any form of success will require continued huge investment of manpower and equipment, and is likely to take considerable further time,” the UK said. The ongoing conflict between the two nations has reached 100th day, which was started on February 24 when Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine.