WASHINGTON, December 2. /TASS/. Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff General Charles Brown, and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Valery Zaluzhny have spoken by phone and exchanged assessments of the situation on the battlefield, the Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement.
"The two military leaders discussed the latest battlefield assessments," the statement said.
The sides also discussed continuing security assistance to Kiev.
Zaluzhny told The Economist in early November that the conflict around Ukraine had reached a stalemate and the country’s troops would not be able to achieve a breakthrough. According to the Ukrainian general, a positional conflict of attrition could drag on for years and wear Ukraine down.
The Ukrainian military has been making unsuccessful attempts at an offensive since June 4. Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu said on November 21 that since the beginning of that month Ukrainian forces had lost more than 13,700 men and about 1,800 units of weapons and military equipment. He said in October that Kiev had lost more than 90,000 servicemen, along with about 600 tanks and 1,900 armored vehicles of various types since the start of the counteroffensive. Russia has repeatedly said that Kiev’s counteroffensive hasn’t achieved any significant results, despite the heavy losses.