Ukrainian top general says front has ‘worsened’
KYIV—Fighting in eastern Ukraine has worsened and Kyiv’s troops have fallen back to new positions in at least three places along the front, Ukraine’s top general said on Sunday.
Russian troops have been steadily advancing in the east, with the focal point of fighting near the town of Chasiv Yar and northwest of Avdiivka, which Russian forces captured in February.
Oleksandr Syrskyi said on Telegram that his troops had taken up new positions west of the villages of Berdychi and Semenivka, both north of Avdiivka, and Novomykhailivka, further south near the town of Maryinka.
The new defensive lines are in a section of the front that runs past the city of Donetsk, controlled by pro-Russian forces since 2014.
“In general, the enemy achieved certain tactical successes in these areas, but could not gain operational advantages,” he said.
Russia’s troops are advancing in the eastern Donetsk region as Kyiv awaits the arrival of much-needed US weapons that it hopes will stabilize the fragile front lines.
“The situation at the front has worsened,” Syrskyi said in a Facebook post.
Russia has “a significant advantage in forces and means” and had been able to notch up advances amid “heavy fighting,” Syrskyi said.
Russia’s defense ministry earlier on Sunday claimed its troops had captured the village of Novobakhmutivka in the Donetsk region—around 10 kilometers north of Avdiivka, which they seized in February.
The stark assessment of the picture facing Ukrainian troops comes at the end of week of ups and downs for Kyiv.
The United States finally approved a $61-billion package of financial aid after months of political wrangling, unlocking much-needed arms for Ukraine’s stretched troops.
But on the battlefield Russia chalked up more successes.
Its troops managed to make rapid advances in a narrow column to the northwest of Avdiivka.In the village of Vozdvyzhenka, some eight kilometers from the fighting in Ocheretyne, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reporters saw civilians loading a small truck with furniture and belongings on Sunday.
No time to talk
“We’re going a long way from here…I don’t have time to talk because of the shelling,” one of them told AFP, before climbing into the vehicle and speeding out of the village. Soldiers on the side of a road in the woods said they had originally been sent to build defensive lines.
“But the situation has changed. We were told not to take the shovels but to stay and wait for orders. The Russians are attacking and advancing,” one told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity.
The recent setbacks have prompted rare criticism from Ukraine’s military bloggers.
“The (Russian) breakthrough near Ocheretyne revealed a number of problems,” the Deep State Telegram channel, with close links to the Ukrainian army, said in a post on Wednesday.
It said leaders of the 115th mechanized brigade, which is fighting in the area, were “responsible for the collapse of the defense in the entire sector, allowing significant losses.”Kyiv’s forces are outnumbered across the battlefield, with the country struggling to recruit enough soldiers to replace those who have been killed, wounded or exhausted by the war, now in its third year.
Leaders in Kyiv have warned the military outlook could worsen in the next few weeks, while shipments of US weapons are making their way to the front lines.“We are still waiting for the supplies promised to Ukraine,” said President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in his evening address Sunday.Ukraine’s head of intelligence at the ministry of defense Kyrylo Budanov said this month that the battlefield situation would likely be at its most difficult in mid-May to early June. —reports from REUTERS, AFP
