Russian troops appear to be learning from their mistakes and making more progress in eastern Ukraine, though still face logistical problems, US says

• Russian forces recently launched a new offensive in Ukraine's eastern Donbas region.
• They have since made "slow and uneven" progress in the area, a US official said Thursday.

Russian troops appear to be learning from their mistakes and are making more progress in eastern Ukraine, but still face several logistical problems, the US Department of Defense said in a news brief Thursday, citing a senior Pentagon official.

The official, who was not named, said 92 Russian battalion tactical groups are currently operating in the eastern Donbas region.

Russian forces recently launched a new offensive in the area after being unable to capture Ukraine's capital Kyiv.

Since their arrival in Donbas earlier this month, the troops have made "slow and uneven" progress, the Pentagon official said, adding that they are nowhere near seizing an overall advantage over Ukraine.

A senior NATO official told CNN that the troops appear to be learning from their earlier mistakes in Kyiv and are combining their air and ground operations more effectively.

The Russians — who were hoping to seize Kyiv in days — failed to combine both operations and proved incapable of adjusting to setbacks, the Associated Press reported.

But despite their current progress, the Russian soldiers still "haven't overcome all their logistics problems" and are facing strong resistance from Ukraine, the Pentagon official said.

"Just from logistics alone, they're only able to sustain several-kilometers-or-so progress on any given day ... because they don't want to run out too far ahead of their logistics and sustainment lines," the official said, according to the news brief.

British intelligence confirmed Friday that the gains made by Russian troops in the region were "limited" because of a "strong Ukrainian resistance."

Ukraine's armed forces said Friday that Russian troops had lost almost 1,000 tanks and more than 2,400 combat armored machines since the start of its invasion on February 24.

Russian President Vladimir Putin is under increasing pressure to demonstrate he can show some sort of victory by May 9, Western officials have said.

May 9 is a major holiday in Russia that commemorates the defeat of Nazi Germany in 1945 and is usually marked with a military parade in front of the Kremlin.