NEW YORK, July 21. /TASS/. The slow pace of the counteroffensive by the armed forces of Ukraine came as no surprise, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Director William Burns has told the Aspen Security Forum.

"I don't think it should come as a surprise to anyone that the counteroffensive is a hard slog. Offense is a lot harder than defense," he said, when asked to comment on the pace of the Ukrainian counteroffensive.

"The Russians have had months to prepare not only fixed defenses in Southeast Asia, in southern Ukraine, but also quite thick and extensive fields as well. So it's going to take time and it's not going to be easy to make progress," the CIA chief added.

As the Russian Defense Ministry reported earlier, the Ukrainian military has been making unsuccessful offensive attempts since June 4. Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu said on July 11 that the Ukrainian army’s losses had exceeded 26,000 since Kiev launched its counteroffensive. Russian President Vladimir Putin stressed that Ukrainian troops had not achieved any success in any of the frontline areas.