Advertising Read more"It's been fought over now for eight years," the official said of the heavily contested Donbas region of eastern Ukraine. The US defense official also said the Russia military was continuing to reposition its forces around Kyiv after failing to take the capital. The official said heavy fighting continued in the southern Ukrainian city of Mariupol and the eastern city of Kharkiv but the Russians have not made any "major gains." "We believe one of the reasons that they want Mariupol so badly is so that they can move to the north, coming out of Mariupol," the official said. "We do continue to observe some Russian forces inside Mariupol, obviously the Ukrainians are fighting very, very tough inside the city."
