US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin told CNN that Russia made “slips” in the invasion of Ukraine

You can watch the full interview with Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin on “Don Lemon Tonight” at 10 p.m. ET on CNN.

Providing an assessment of the Russian forces, Austin told CNN correspondent Don Lemon in an exclusive interview conducted in the Bulgarian capital Sofia, that the Russians “did not advance as quickly as they would have liked.”

Austin told CNN that the Russians had “suffered from logistical support” and that he had seen no evidence of “good employment of tactical intelligence,” nor of “the integration of air capability with a ground maneuver.”

“There are a number of things that we expect to see that we just haven’t seen. And the Russians really have some problems – they presented us with some problems. So, many of their assumptions have not been proven correct as they are in this fight.”

Since the invasion of Ukraine started nearly a month ago, Russian forces have started bombed and destroyed Large parts of the cities, including Mariupol and Kharkiv, but Ukraine managed to prevent Russia from seizing vast areas of the country, including the capital, Kyiv.

“I think (Russia) imagined that they were going to move very quickly and very quickly to take the capital. They couldn’t do that,” the Pentagon chief said.

In the face of fierce Ukrainian resistance to its invasion, Russia is also dealing with low troop morale and Struggling to resupply thousands of troops in the country, US and NATO officials told CNN this week.