U.S. Says Russian Offensive Against Kharkiv ‘Stalled’

U.S. President Joe Biden’s national security advisor said on Sunday that Russia’s advance on northeastern Ukraine’s Kharkiv region “has stalled.”

“The momentum of that operation in Kharkiv has stalled out,” Jake Sullivan told CBS. “Kharkiv is still under threat but Russians have not been able to make material progress on the ground in recent days in that area.”

Washington recently gave Kyiv the green light to use U.S.-supplied weapons in defending the Kharkiv region, despite concerns that authorizing those kinds of strikes might drag NATO into a direct conflict with Russia.

“From the president’s perspective, this was common sense,” Sullivan said. “It simply didn’t make sense not to allow the Ukrainians to fire across that border, to hit Russian guns and emplacements that were firing at the Ukrainians.”

Biden, who is visiting France, met Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Paris on Friday, reiterating his support for the war-torn country.

Speaking on Saturday, Biden said Russian President Vladimir Putin would “not stop” at Ukraine.

“All of Europe will be threatened. We are not going to let that happen,” Biden told journalists alongside French President Emmanuel Macron after talks at the Elysee Palace.

Russian forces have made their most significant territorial gains in 18 months since launching a surprise ground assault against the Kahrkiv region in early May, capturing several Ukrainian border villages and forcing thousands to flee their homes.