In the war launched by Russia, kyiv is finding it increasingly difficult to hold its positions. Ukraine admitted on Sunday that the situation was “tense” on the eastern front, where a Russian army “in numerical superiority” is pushing ever harder to seize the strategic locality of Chassiv Yar, facing weak Ukrainian forces. ammunition stocks.
Ukrainian Defense Minister Roustem Umerov said he visited soldiers in the area where the fighting is currently taking place. On this eastern front, where “the situation is tense”, Russian troops, “in numerical superiority”, are attempting a breakthrough “west of Bakhmout”, a town that they conquered in May 2023 at the end of a particularly bloody and destructive battle, he said.
Fights for control of Chassiv Iar
A little earlier, the commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian army, General Oleksandr Syrsky, had also assured that Russia was concentrating its efforts in this area in order to seize Chassiv Yar, about 20 km to the west of Bakhmut.
Such a conquest would offer the Russian military a chance to advance in the region. This city, perched on a height, extends less than 30 kilometers southeast of Kramatorsk, the main city in the region under Ukrainian control and an important railway and logistics hub. Russia thus wants to “create the conditions for a deeper advance” towards Kramatorsk, noted the commander-in-chief.
Oleksandr Syrsky, who stressed that the forces defending Chassiv Yar had received additional weapons, had recognized the day before that the situation on the Eastern front had “considerably deteriorated”. Despite their losses, the Russians are deploying “new armored units”, which allows them to achieve “tactical successes”, he declared.
kyiv wants weapons
In recent weeks, Moscow has regularly claimed the capture of villages, notably near the town of Avdiïvka on Saturday. This offensive occurs at a very delicate time for the Ukrainian army, which is struggling to recruit against an adversary whose troops are better stocked and better equipped.
Western aid is stalling, in particular due to political blockages in Washington, which is forcing the Ukrainian military to save their ammunition. For months, kyiv has been urging its partners to deliver more weapons and air defense systems. “Rhetoric does not protect the sky,” President Volodymyr Zelensky insisted again on Sunday.