The White House said it did not assess that Ukraine has reached a stalemate in its defensive war against Russia, as reports from the battlefield detail Kyiv’s struggles to oust Moscow’s forces from dug-in positions on the front lines.

National security adviser Jake Sullivan, responding to a reporter’s question, said that Ukraine is taking territory on a “methodical, systematic basis”.

“We do not assess that the conflict is a stalemate. There is attacking and defending taking place on both sides at multiple points along a very extended front line of trace. And it is true that the Russians have been attacking up in the northeast. It is also true that the Ukrainians have been defending up in the northeast quite effectively.

Critics of Ukraine’s counteroffensive should approach the question of battlefield conduct with a level of humility.

We do our best to provide our best advice and then Ukraine makes its own sovereign decisions about how it’s going to proceed. That’s how I look at it, that’s how the president looks at it, that’s the policy of the US”, - said Jake Sullivan.