According to the US Pentagon, Ukraine is defending itself quite well

          We’ve been reporting on Ukrainian officials’ claims that their soldiers are retaking territory from the Russians.

At the most recent briefing, US Defence Department spokesman John Kirby told reporters that Ukraine has been defending sections of the nation “very cleverly, very nimbly, very creatively”.

“We’ve seen signs that the Ukrainians are going a little more offensive now”, he added.

“We’ve seen them recently in areas, especially in the south around Kherson, [where] they’ve sought to reclaim land”.

Ukrainian forces, according to Kirby, had been planning counter-attacks and were now “heading in that direction”.

“The Ukrainians are putting up a pretty hard defence… the Russians have not achieved any of the strategic goals that they set out to achieve – or at least not without damage”.