The Russian military is increasingly attacking civilian facilities in Ukraine, according to the US government.
"We have seen increase of strikes on civilian infrastructure, civilian targets," a senior US defence official said on Thursday. At the same time, he said, morale among Russian soldiers was dwindling in places.
"We don't have insight into every unit and every location. But we certainly have picked up anecdotal indications that that that morale is not is not high in some units," the official said.
It is also worth noting that the Russian military is considering bringing supplies to Ukraine. It is not yet clear that this is happening. But the very fact that this is an issue is a sign of concern on the Russian side, the official said.
"So three weeks in, they're still able to to maintain their force in the field, but not without difficulty. Three weeks in, we are seeing them begin to think about resupply from elsewhere, including manning support. And that, you know, two weeks and we saw them put out a call for foreign fighters which we noted was also an interesting development."
Around the south-western Ukrainian port city of Odessa, ongoing Russian naval activity is being observed, the senior official further described. But there were no "imminent signs" of an attack from the sea, he said. "We're not sure what they're planning to do, what they're preparing to do."
