Ukraine counter-offensive is far from failure -US general

FILE PHOTO: U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman General Mark Milley testifies before a U.S. House Appropriations Defense Subcommittee hearing on President Biden's proposed budget request for the Department of Defense, on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., March 23, 2023. REUTERS/Michael A. McCoy/File Photo

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Ukraine's counter-offensive against Russia is far from a failure, but the fight ahead will be long and bloody, the top U.S. general said on Tuesday, even as casualties on both sides mount and the front lines have moved only incrementally.

The United States and other allies have spent months building Ukraine a "mountain of steel" of weaponry and training Ukrainian forces in combined arms techniques to help Kyiv pierce formidable Russian defenses during its counter-offensive.