Thread by @CaitlinDoornbos

Senior defense official #2 begins: "We still see fighting and efforts by the Russians along all their major axes of approach. We still assess there's no appreciable movement of the Russian forces that are forward in the north and the east," specifically mentioning Kyiv.

U.S. still not calling whether Russia has taken Kherson and says fighting still continues despite the city's mayor announcing Russian troops entered Kherson's city hall.
Background: stripes.com/theaters/europ…

"We have observed Russian forces continue to advance on Mariupol, but we don't assess that they're in there. They are bombarding that city as well and you've seen reports coming out of the city of utility outages, water and electricity."

On Russian attack on nuclear power plant last night:
"We have no reason to doubt Russian claims that they are now in possession of that nuclear power plant and we do not see any radioactive leakage."

"We do believe that the fires in the associated buildings have been put out. We don't have a sense on on the nature of the attack on the power plant. So I can't give you a blow-by-blow of exactly how that occurred ... but the main thing is we don't see any radioactive leakage."

On why Russians attacked the plant: "If your goal is to supplant the government of Ukraine and replace it ... one can surmise that you would want to control the infrastructure & to make sure that you can meet your needs. And a nuclear power plant would certainly be on that list."

"That might be of interest to you as a trying to become an occupying power to be able to control the infrastructure, particularly electrical power. And you could use that to preserve the electrical power going forward and to be able to deliver goods and services to a population."

If seeking to control population centers "you could also use [the nuclear power plant] before you've reached occupation status. You can use your leverage in that regard to to punish a population to make it harder for that population to resist you."

On new deconfliction line w/Russia: "In our initial test of it, they answered the phone so we know that they know who's calling and that, at least in terms of the initiation of the step setting up of it, it worked. They did answer the line."
Background: stripes.com/theaters/us/20…

Why Russia would want Kherson:
"If you look at a map, Kherson is really the last major population center on the Dnieper river just before it empties out into the northern Black Sea. So it's a key port city in that regard."

About 92% of Russia's 170,000+ troops and combat power it had arrayed around Ukraine before the invasion are now inside the city. That's up 2% since yesterday.
Background: stripes.com/theaters/europ…

"We continue to believe Mr. Putin does not believe Ukraine has the right to exist as a sovereign state. [He's] made it clear he wants to take that sovereignty away & it's his intent to occupy/control Ukraine to supplant its democratically elected government w/one [he appoints.]"

Re: the nuclear power plant attacked: "All we know from talking to the Department of Energy is that we assess that there hasn't been any, any leakage. As for cooling and containment. I mean, that's just that's a level of detail and visibility we just don't have right now."

DOD has "no indication" that Americans have traveled to Ukraine to fight:"Americans wanting to help Ukraine, the best way they can do that is to find ways to contribute to the humanitarian assistance efforts."

"Our focus here is the Department of Defense is twofold. One, making sure Ukraine can defend itself and two, making sure that NATO can defend itself."

On whether Belarus has sent troops: "No indications that they [have] or are preparing to get into the fight." However, Russian troops have invaded Ukraine from its northern border with Belarus.

The airspace over Ukraine is still contested: "We don't have perfect visibility into their air operations plans, but the Russians continue to fly aircraft as well as being able to to use their missile systems inside Ukraine."

"Most of the [Russian] missile strikes that we see ... they certainly do a lot of them during periods of darkness, but not exclusively. As for their night flying again ... certainly capable of flying manned aircraft in the in the in the night hours."

Russia is striking "civilian infrastructure -- hospitals, schools, residential areas -- are being hit. It is not clear to us still the degree to which those strikes are intentional or not, but they are causing casualties, they are killing civilians. They are wounding civilians."

"And they are just another indication of the recklessness with which Russia continues to up this."