ISTANBUL

A top NATO commander said Thursday that the number of Russian troops participating in a recent offensive in Ukraine’s northeastern Kharkiv region is "insufficient" for a breakthrough.

“The Russians don't have the numbers necessary to do a strategic breakthrough,” Gen. Christopher Cavoli, NATO's supreme allied commander Europe, said at a press conference in Brussels following a chiefs of defense meeting of the alliance.

“More to the point, they don’t have the skill and the capability to do it, to operate at the scale necessary to exploit any breakthrough,” Cavoli said, while noting that Russia does have the capability to make local advances.

Cavoli further said that he has been in contact with Ukraine’s military leadership and is confident that Kyiv will hold its defensive line in Kharkiv.

Last Friday, Ukraine’s Defense Ministry said Russian forces attempted to break through the country’s defenses in Kharkiv, opening a new front in the over two-year-long conflict that is concentrated in the country’s east and south.

Since then, Russia has claimed control of several border settlements in the region during its offensive, particularly near the city of Vovchansk, which is about 74 kilometers (46 miles) from Ukraine's second-largest city of Kharkiv.​​​​​​​