Russian President Vladimir Putin has given up on taking Kyiv, according to US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, after his forces were severely driven back by the Ukrainian military.

“Putin thought that he could very rapidly take over the country of Ukraine, very rapidly capture this capital city. He was wrong, ” Austin said before a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing in Congress.

“I think Putin has given up on his efforts to capture the capital city and is now focused on the south and east of the country,” Austin stated.

However, six weeks after Russia invaded Ukraine, the general course of the conflict remained undetermined, according to General Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

According to him, for Ukraine to “win” the struggle, it must remain a free and independent nation with its recognized boundaries intact.

“That’s going to be very difficult. That’s going to be a long slog,” Milley said.

“The first part of it has probably been successfully waged,” he said of the war that began on February 24.

“But there is a significant battle yet ahead down in the southeast, down around the Donbas region where the Russians intend to mass forces and continue their assault,” he stated.

“So I think it’s an open question right now, how this ends.”

Austin informed the congressmen that the US is giving intelligence to Ukraine’s military to help it battle in the Donbas, where Moscow-backed separatists have been battling government forces since 2014 and now have direct Russian army backing.

“It is much more open and lends itself to armor, mechanized offensive operations, on both sides. And so those are the systems that they’re looking for,” he said.

“They are asking for and they could probably use additional armor and artillery,” he added.

However, Milley stated that the combat in that region will be difficult, and that in order to force the Russians out, Ukraine will most certainly require greater weapons support, such as tanks.

“The fight down in the southeast—the terrain is different than it is in the north,” Milley remarked.