Ukraine admitted on Sunday that Russian forces were advancing in four frontline areas in the east where “hard fighting” is taking place, but assured that its troops were advancing in the south, about a month after the launch of their counteroffensive.
“The enemy is advancing in the areas of Avdiivka, Mariinka, Lyman,” Ukrainian Deputy Defense Minister Ganna Maliar wrote on Telegram. “It is also advancing in the Svatovoe sector. »
“The situation is quite difficult,” she continued. “There is fierce fighting everywhere. »
Sixteen months after the start of the Russian invasion, Ukraine says it is continuing its counter-offensive launched about a month ago and which has so far failed to trigger a decisive advance, and urges its Western allies to hasten the promised military aid ahead of a NATO summit in Vilnius.
These latest developments on the frontline come after another nighttime airborne explosive drone attack on kyiv, the first in 12 days, according to Ukrainian officials.
“All enemy targets in the airspace around Kiev have been detected and destroyed,” said Sergiy Popko, head of the capital’s military administration.
The Ukrainian Air Force, in a separate statement, said it had shot down eight Iranian-made Sahed explosive drones, and three cruise missiles.
The Deputy Defense Minister added on Sunday that Ukrainian troops were advancing with “partial success” on the southern flank of the eastern city of Bakhmout, as well as near Berdyansk and Melitopol, in the southern front area.
In the south, she said Ukrainian forces were encountering “intense enemy resistance” as well as minefields, and were advancing only “gradually”.
“As fast as possible”
Ukrainian troops “are working continuously and tirelessly to create the conditions for as rapid an advance as possible”, she wrote again.
The commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian army, Valery Zalouzhny, had estimated, in an interview published Friday by the washington post, that kyiv’s forces were hampered by a lack of armament. He had in particular demanded the delivery of American F-16 fighter planes, essential to counter the Russian air forces.
“We don’t need 120 planes. I’m not going to threaten the entire planet. A small number will be enough,” he told the American daily. “But they are necessary, there is no other solution. »
He also lamented a lack of artillery in the face of the deluge of Russian fire.
“By the time the decisions are made, it is obvious that many people are dying, every day, and in large numbers. Simply because decisions are not made right away,” he insisted.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, receiving Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez on Saturday, criticized Kiev’s Western partners on the pace of implementation of the training of Ukrainian airmen, accustomed to MiGs and Soviet Sukhoi, flying the F-16s. “There is no training mission schedule. I think some partners are dragging their feet. Why do they do it? I don’t know,” he said.
US Chief of Staff Mark Milley, from Washington, replied that the US and its allies are doing what they can to send what Ukraine needs.
Delivering F-16s or ATACMS tactical missiles to them is “on the table, but no decision has been made yet,” he said.
The counter-offensive “is going slower than we predicted”, he also felt, but “war is like that”.