Fighting intensified in eastern Ukraine, with troops retreating in at least three points on the front and damage to infrastructure. Exhausted, soldiers await support from the US. The fighting in eastern Ukraine has worsened, with troops retreating in at least three points on the front, a senior general in Kiev said this Sunday (28/04).
Russian attack hit psychiatric clinic in Kharkiv on Saturday night
Photo: DW / Deutsche Welle
Via Telegram, Oleksandr Syrskyi said his contingent took up new positions west of the villages of Berdychi, Semenivka and Novomykhailivka.
Russian pressure intensifies as Kiev awaits the arrival of new weapons from the West.
“The situation at the front has worsened,” Syrskyi wrote on social media. According to him, Russian soldiers attack from different directions and are in larger numbers and better equipped, which has given them “tactical achievements”.
In recent days, Moscow’s troops have announced the capture of several villages in eastern Ukraine, as well as advances in regions still in dispute. Just this Sunday, the most recent information on the Russian side was the conquest of Novobakhmutivka in Donetsk, north of Avdiivka, which has been under Russian rule since February this year.
The Russian advance has been confirmed by war observers. “Russia should make significant tactical gains in the coming weeks, while Ukraine awaits the arrival of American support at the front”, according to an analysis by the American Institute for the Studies of War (ISW). “But it remains unlikely that Russian forces will bypass the Ukrainian defense.”
After months of blockade, the United States approved a package worth R$61 billion in aid to Ukraine last week
Urgent appeal for weapons
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky once again asked the West to deliver air defense weapons. Bombings on the night of Friday to Saturday would have damaged gas pipelines, according to him.
Despite Ukrainian appeals, German Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz has refused to supply Kiev with Taurus missiles. The allied country, however, agreed to make a third Patriot-type air defense system available – American technology capable of stopping Russian ballistic missiles is highly desired by Zelensky.
According to the American newspaper The New York Times, Russia has also invested in Ukrainian railway infrastructure in recent days, in a strategy to delay the arrival of American weapons.
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu was clear about the tactic: “We will increase the intensity of attacks on Western logistics centers and weapons storage bases,” he said on Tuesday.
Kiev, at the same time, has retaliated with drones, attacking Russian oil and gas refineries, as well as other targets on Russian territory – the exact damage caused by these attacks is unknown, as the Kremlin strictly controls such information.
ra (Reuters, dpa, ots)
Deutsche Welle is Germany’s international broadcaster and produces independent journalism in 30 languages.
