Kyiv's forces continue their struggle to break through Russia's multilayered defenses in Ukraine's Donetsk region.
On The Front Line: Ukraine's Counteroffensive Yields Small Gains
Ukrainian soldiers fire a self-propelled howitzer toward Russian positions at the front line in the Donetsk region on August 9.
After months of preparations and resupply -- with as many as nine newly constituted, NATO-trained armored brigades -- Ukraine's counteroffensive to break through Russia's multilayered defenses is going slowly.
A Ukrainian air-defense soldier scans the sky for Russian drones at the front line.
The size and complexity of Russian defenses across southern and eastern Ukraine have proven formidable.
Ukrainian soldiers wait inside a self-propelled howitzer.
A camouflaged Ukrainian air-defense unit hidden among the trees keeps watch.
A view of the shattered Ukrainian town of New York, which lies some 35 kilometers to the north of the Russian-held city of Donetsk.
Kyiv's troops took a series of villages south of Velyka Novosilka and seized high ground around Bakhmut, both north of the city and also to its south, near the village of Klishchiyivka.
A Ukrainian M109 self-propelled howitzer roars through farmland in the Donetsk region on August 7.
In the Zaporizhzhya region, Kyiv's forces ran into what experts described as a meat-grinder of Russian fortifications -- layers of trenches, minefields, barbed wire, anti-tank defenses, pillboxes -- that forced Ukrainian units into narrow strips of land where they were punished by Russian artillery.
Ukrainian soldiers load 155-mm shells into a M109 self-propelled howitzer.
The defenses have been dubbed "Surovikin lines," named after Russian General Sergei Surovikin, who briefly commanded Moscow's forces that invaded Ukraine until he was demoted in January.
Ukrainian soldiers fire a M109 self-propelled howitzer toward Russian positions.
At a speech in Washington on June 30, the chairman of the U.S. joint chiefs of staff defended Ukraine's progress. "That it's going slower than people predicted doesn't surprise me at all," General Mark Milley said.
At a speech in Washington on June 30, the chairman of the U.S. joint chiefs of staff defended Ukraine's progress. "That it's going slower than people predicted doesn't surprise me at all," General Mark Milley said.
A Ukrainian soldier prepares to fire a mortar onto Russian positions near the city of Bakhmut on August 7.
"It's going to be very difficult, very long, and it's going to be very, very bloody, and no one should have any illusions about any of that," Milley said.
Smoke rises over a sunflower field on the front line on August 9.