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By Gary Raynaldo   DIPLOMATIC  TIMES

WASHINGTON   –   PENTAGON  –   A  massive 40-mile-long convoy of Russian tanks, armored vehicles, and artillery has stalled about 16 miles outside Ukraine’s capital city Kyiv,  according to a senior Department of Defense official.  The Russian military had planned for an all-out assault on Kyiv this week.   “We believe that the convoy is stalled. It’s a long convoy, so I can’t be perfectly predictive…on every mile of that, whether they’re moving or not. But they are not moving — they are not moving at any rate that would lead one to believe that they’ve solved their problems. So we would characterize it as stalled. Again, we don’t have perfect visibility into what’s going on on the ground there,” the DOD official said Wednesday.  Speaking at a press conference, Pentagon Press Secretary John Kirby told reporters that the DOD has assessed that that convoy, or the northern push by the Russians down towards the south, towards Kyiv, remains stalled seven days after Moscow moved on Ukraine. 

“They haven’t — from our best estimates have not made any appreciable progress geographically speaking in the last 24 to 36 hours, and again nothing very significant. It is difficult for us to know with great specificity all that is going into this stall if you will. They are getting resistance from the Ukrainians. We have some indications — nothing that we can 100 percent independently verify, but we have some indications that the Ukrainians have in fact tried to slow down that convoy.”

-Pentagon Press Secretary John Kirby  

Satellite image  shows military convoy northwest of Invankiv, Ukraine Monday, Feb. 28, 2022. (Source: Satellite image ©2022 Maxar Technologies)

United Nations officials said at least 227 civilians have been killed in the fighting, but added that could be a massive undercount.  

Photo by Gary Raynaldo  /  ©Diplomatic Times /  Pentagon Press Secretary John Kirby briefs reporters on the Russia/Ukraine situation at the Pentagon in Washington DC  Mar. 2, 2022.

The Pentagon press secretary said the DOD believes several reasons for the convoy stalling include the Russians could be deliberately regrouping themselves and reassessing the progress that they have not made and how to make up for lost time; and the DOD believes they have experienced logistics and sustainment challenges, “challenges that we don’t believe they fully anticipated.” 

DIPLOMATIC TIMES  VIDEO  /   Pentagon Press Secretary John Kirby said Russian military convoy encountering resistance from Ukrainians outside capital city Kyiv. 

Russian Forces Meeting Resistance in Kherson – Pentagon 

While the Russian invasion prong aimed at the Ukrainian capital city of Kyiv appears stalled,  fighting rages in Kharkiv, the country’s second largest city.  In the southern part of the besieged country, news reports indicate the Russians may have taken the city of Kherson, but U.S. officials cannot independently confirm this development. The Pentagon reports resistance in Kherson and another southern city of Mariupol 

“The Ukrainians are fighting bravely and creatively. They’re (Russian forces) meeting resistance in Kherson, and they’re going to meet resistance in Mariupol. So I think we just need to see how this plays out. You know, and I saw the comment about risk adverse.  I mean, we’re seeing vehicles abandoned. We’re seeing sustainment problems in fuel, not just fuel but in food. We’re seeing indications here early on that though they — though they have sophisticated combined arms capabilities that they’re not being necessarily fully integrated. So they have made some missteps, and they’re working their way through that. “

-John  Kirby 

Pentagon Says Security Assistance From U.S. and Allies Continues to Flow to Ukraine

The Pentagon press secretary said security assistance continues to flow, not just from the United States but from many of its allies and partners. “So we are making every effort to get as much security assistance as we can to the Ukrainians as fast as we can.”