(Vozdvyjenka) The commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian army, Oleksandr Syrsky, admitted on Sunday that the situation on the front had “deteriorated”, with Russian troops, superior in weapons and soldiers, having achieved “tactical successes” in several areas.
The Ukrainian army has been on the defensive since the failure of its major counter-offensive last summer and faces renewed Russian initiative after the fall of the eastern fortress town of Avdiivka in February .
Struggling to mobilize new soldiers and faced with the drying up of Western aid, Ukraine has had to retreat recently in several sectors, as illustrated by Moscow’s demand on Sunday for the capture of a new village.
Russia is “actively attacking all along the front line, achieving tactical successes in certain sectors,” General Syrsky said on Facebook.
According to him, the Russian army “concentrated its efforts in several sectors, thus creating a significant advantage in terms of forces and means”, in order to “attempt to take the strategic initiative and break through the front line”.
He reported “heavy fighting” over the past week, describing a “dynamic” situation with certain positions captured by one side and then the other several times during a single day.
According to him, Ukrainian troops are however managing to “improve their tactical position” in certain areas.
“Heavy fighting”
Among the areas where the fighting is most intense is the Kupiansk sector, in the northeast of the country, where the Russians “experienced partial successes, but were stopped,” General Syrsky said.
In the Kramatorsk sector (east), Russian troops are on the offensive to take the town of Chassiv Iar, but the “most complicated situation” is concentrated in the area of Pokrovsk and Kurakhové, where “fierce fighting is taking place.” continue,” he said.
He admitted that Ukrainian troops had withdrawn from the towns of Berdychi, Semenivka, and Novomykhailivka, and also spoke of a “tense situation” in the south of the country.
Russia claimed on Sunday the capture of a new village on the Eastern Front, that of Novobakhmoutivka, located northwest of the town of Avdiïvka.
This village is located near that of Otcheretyne, quickly invaded this week by Russian forces who currently control most of it according to observers, which has sparked criticism.
Incessant bombings targeted the area of Otcheretyné, a locality located on the heights, and plumes of gray smoke rose into the sky, an AFP team noted in the morning.
In the village of Vozdvyjenka, 8 km northwest, three civilians were finishing loading a small truck with furniture and other belongings.
“We are going far from here. We took some of our belongings here and from another village,” one of the men told AFP, in a hurry to leave. “I don’t have time to talk because there are bombings,” he adds, before quickly leaving the village by truck.
“The Russians are advancing”
Ukrainian soldiers encountered along a wooded road in the area told AFP that they had come to dig defense lines not far from Otcheretyne.
“But the situation has changed. We were told not to take the shovels, to stay here and wait for orders. The Russians are attacking and advancing,” one of them said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
In mid-April, the Ukrainian commander-in-chief had already mentioned a situation which had “considerably deteriorated” with a “significant intensification” of the Russian offensive since March, leading to first “tactical successes”.
In this context, Ukrainian military intelligence chief Kyrylo Budanov predicted on Monday that the situation will worsen around mid-May and early June, which will be a “difficult period” for Ukraine.
The Ukrainian authorities, however, hope to fill the arms and ammunition deficit thanks to the envelope of some 61 billion dollars in aid approved by the American Congress after months of blockage due to political quarrels in Washington.
US President Joe Biden promised his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky this week that this aid would arrive “quickly”. The Kremlin, for its part, minimized the impact it would have.
To replenish the ranks of the army, Volodymyr Zelensky also promulgated in April a controversial law on military mobilization, intended to facilitate the enlistment of new recruits.