By Tom Balmforth
KIEV (Reuters) – Ukraine’s army chief said on Saturday the situation on the eastern front had worsened in recent days as Russia stepped up its armored assaults and battles raged for control of a village west of the devastated city of Bakhmut.
Colonel General Oleksandr Syrskyi’s statement, more than two years after the Russian invasion, reflects the grim mood in Kiev, while vital U.S. military aid that Kiev expected to receive months ago remains blocked in Congress.
Syrskyi said he went to the area to stabilize the front while Russian assault groups using tanks and armored personnel carriers took advantage of the dry, hot weather, which made maneuvering easier.
“The situation on the Eastern Front has become noticeably more tense in recent days. This is mainly related to the significant offensive activity of the enemy after the presidential elections in Russia,” he wrote on the Telegram app.
Since President Vladimir Putin won a new mandate in mid-March elections, Russia has stepped up its attacks on Ukraine and unleashed three massive airstrikes on its energy system, hitting power plants and substations.
The slowdown in military assistance from the West has left Ukraine more exposed to airstrikes and heavily underarmed on the battlefield. In recent weeks Kiev has made increasingly desperate appeals for the supply of air defense missiles.
Moscow’s forces, Syrskyi said, were suffering significant losses during their attacks in the east, but were also gaining tactical advantages.
Social media channels reported the fall of the eastern Ukrainian village of Bohdanivka, west of the occupied town of Bakhmut, prompting Kiev’s Defense Ministry to deny it.
But he acknowledged heavy fighting in the area and said Russian assault groups reached the northern outskirts of the village overnight. “Bohdanivka is now under the control of the defense forces,” he reads.
The settlement is located a few kilometers northeast of the city of Khasiv Yar, a Kiev-controlled stronghold that Russia sought to reach after capturing the southern city of Avdiivka in February.
SEIZING THE STRATEGIC INITIATIVE
Russia’s Defense Ministry said Saturday that its forces had captured Pervomaiske, a southern village also located in Ukraine’s Donetsk region, where Moscow has concentrated its offensive operations for months.
Moscow said its troops improved their front-line tactical position after capturing the village 8 kilometers (4.97 miles) southwest of occupied Avdiivka. Kiev did not immediately comment on Pervomaiske’s status.
Syrskyi said Russian armored assault groups were attacking on the Lyman and Bakhmut fronts and using dozens of tanks and armored vehicles to try to break through the lines on the Pokrovsk front.
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, who has warned that Russia could prepare a major offensive in late May or June, inspected domestically produced weapons at an event outside Kiev, where he presented state awards to Ukrainian weapons makers.
During the event, the head of the Ukrainian military drone forces said that supplies of front-line drones this year were already three times higher than the volume supplied over the entire last year, the Interfax news agency reported -Ukraine.
He also said that Ukraine has attack drones capable of flying 1,200 km.
In his statement, Syrskyi said that only a technological advantage over Russia in terms of sophisticated weapons would allow Kiev to “seize the strategic initiative” from a larger and better equipped enemy.
He called for better training for soldiers and especially infantry, in clear reference to Ukraine’s manpower challenges.
Ukraine’s parliament on Thursday approved a bill to overhaul how the armed forces draft civilians into its ranks. Zelenskiy also signed a law last week lowering the draft age from 27 to 25.