(Moscow) Russia said on Sunday that it had taken control of a locality in eastern Ukraine, increasing its pressure towards Chassiv Yar, the day after a vote by the American House of Representatives which validated a new military aid to Kyiv, whose army is in difficulty.
“Units of the “South” group of troops completely liberated the settlement of Bogdanovka [dénomination russe, NDLR] in the Donetsk People’s Republic,” the Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement.
Bogdanivka, a very small town of less than 100 inhabitants before the war, is located less than 10 kilometers from Chassiv Iar, a target town for the Russian army after the conquest of Bakhmut, further east, in spring 2023.
The town of Chassiv Iar, a hot spot on the eastern front, extends mainly less than 30 kilometers southeast of Kramatorsk, the main city of the Donetsk region under Ukrainian control which is an important railway and logistics hub for the Ukrainian army.
Seizing it would offer Russian soldiers a chance to advance in the region.
The Ukrainian army did not mention Bogdanivka in its morning report, but its representatives have already mentioned a “tense” situation in the wider area, with Russian troops being “in numerical superiority”, according to the Ukrainian Minister of Defense. Defense Roustem Oumerov.
Moscow’s announcement comes the day after the House of Representatives voted in Washington in favor of military and economic aid of nearly $61 billion to Kyiv.
“It’s finally here!” », Welcomes Oksana, a 50-year-old nurse met by AFP on Sunday in downtown Kyiv. “It will help a lot,” she wants to believe.
Stepan, a 61-year-old employee of the national railway networks company, hopes for “immediate” deliveries of shells and ammunition. “Because the guys are suffering at the front.”
On Saturday evening, President Volodymyr Zelensky estimated that the adopted text, which must still pass the Senate, “will save thousands and thousands of lives”.
PHOTO PETRAS MALUKAS, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE ARCHIVES
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky
“This is very important help which will be felt by our soldiers on the front line,” he insisted. His American counterpart Joe Biden spoke of a “crucial” envelope, at the “meeting of History”.
“Not for several weeks”
Because on the ground, the Ukrainian forces lack ammunition, in addition to having difficulty recruiting new volunteers, after more than two years of a war which has exhausted the troops and damaged morale.
Russia still occupies almost 20% of the national territory and seems to be in a favorable position in recent months, following the failure of the Kyiv army’s counter-offensive in the summer of 2023.
However, if the American envelope should allow the Ukrainian troops to catch their breath in the face of a larger Russian army, the first deliveries of promised shells and ammunition will not affect the fighting “for several weeks”, warned the American Institute for the Study of War in its latest bulletin.
In the meantime, the Russians could take advantage of the window left for a few weeks to continue shelling Ukrainian energy infrastructure, in addition to ground assaults, particularly in Donbass, a priority target for the Kremlin.
The Kremlin has already warned that the new American aid would change “nothing” on the front.
The aid “will further enrich the United States of America and ruin Ukraine even more, killing even more Ukrainians because of the Kyiv regime,” Russian presidential spokesperson Dmitry Peskov assured Saturday. .
Europeans and Americans want to see “a clear message” sent to Russia, according to the words of Charles Michel, the President of the European Council.
A Russian strike also injured two police officers and an elderly woman in the southern region of Kherson, Ukrainian police said on Sunday.