“What we can confirm is that we know that last week he spent several days in Donbass,” a senior US Defense Department official told reporters.
He continued, “We do not believe that he is still there,” and said that the US Department of Defense believes that he “left and returned to Russia,” adding: “We cannot confirm the authenticity of reports that he was injured.”
Ukrainian officials reported that on Saturday, Ukrainian forces bombed a command center in Izyum, which Gerasimov, chief of staff of the Russian armed forces, visited to meet with senior field commanders.
But Gerasimov appears to have left when the strike was carried out.
It is believed that Gerasimov was touring the front line to see the situation on the ground and mobilize his forces after he failed to control Kyiv in the north of Ukraine, and after launching a campaign to control the Donetsk and Lugansk regions in eastern Ukraine.
In a daily briefing on the attack on Ukraine, the US Defense Department official said Monday that Russian forces are making little progress and are engaged in fierce battles with Ukrainian forces in the region.
“We are still seeing minimal advances by Russian forces in the Donbass. They made small gains east of Izyum and Bubamsna in Lugansk Oblast,” the official said.
Ukrainian officials said that the Russians are controlling villages and then retaking them by Ukrainian fighters, noting that the Russian forces have lost morale and suffer from a weakness in leadership and organization.
The Pentagon official said Russia’s efforts on the ground are “very lackluster, very uneven, and in some cases, frankly, best described as meager.”
The official did not provide any assessment of the status of Ukrainian forces.
The official explained that the supply of weapons by the United States and Western allies to Ukraine, including heavy artillery, radar systems and attack drones, is continuing at a rapid pace.
In the last 24 hours, 24 planes loaded with US weapons have landed near Ukraine, and 11 additional planes are scheduled to land in the next 24 hours, according to officials.
In addition, 23 cargo planes loaded with weapons and combat supplies dispatched by five countries landed at key delivery points.
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