For the first time on Monday, a senior Russian official acknowledged what has been observed in the West for days: the Russian army’s push into Ukraine is progressing more slowly than planned. “I would like to say, yes, not everything is going as quickly as we would like,” said Viktor Solotov, head of the Russian National Guard and a close confidant of President Vladimir Putin. Solotov also has an explanation ready: right-wing extremist forces in Ukraine, whose elimination is one of the war goals proclaimed by Putin, are using the civilian population as a protective shield.
