Russian forces are pushing hard to take more towns and villages in eastern and southeastern Ukraine as Moscow tries to press its current advantage in weapons and troops, officials in Kyiv have said today.
Despite Russia’s apparent offensive momentum on the ground, Ukraine said it had shot down 13 Russian warplanes this month, including three on Thursday.
With the war now into its third year, Russian forces have been bludgeoning some Ukrainian defensive positions into submission, deploying overwhelming amounts of artillery and troop numbers in an effort to punch through defensive lines at targeted points.
Though Russia’s gains have been small, slow and costly, Ukraine doesn’t have enough reservists and has a severe shortage of artillery shells as the supply of military aid from Western partners has waned.
The Russian army is trying to seize the towns and villages of Tonenke, Orlivka, Semenivka, Berdychi and Krasnohorivka in the eastern Donetsk region, according to Ukraine’s army chief, Colonel General Oleksandr Syrskyi.
Those are places where Ukrainian military officials had said they would form a new line of defence after Ukrainian troops pulled out of Avdiivka on 17 February.
In the southeastern Zaporizhzhia region, Russian forces are focusing on retaking Verbove and Robotyne, towns that Ukraine won back in last summer’s counteroffensive in 2023, Col Gen Syrskyi said.
Col Gen Syrskyi, who was appointed by Volodymyr Zelenskyy to lead the country’s military on 8 February, accused some of his commanders of making “miscalculations” in assessing the enemy and taking countermeasures.
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