Now, the Government of Volodímir Zelenski calls for a greater commitment from NATO through the delivery of larger and heavier weapons.
Epicenter
For weeks, the most intense clashes have been taking place in the industrial region of eastern Ukraine called Donbas, the conquest of which Russia has declared the target of the current phase of its offensive, after having withdrawn troops from kyiv and other regions at the end of March, as part of the invasion launched on February 24.
The Joint Task Force, as the Ukrainian units deployed in Donbas are called, the most experienced and best equipped in the country, said yesterday in a statement that the enemy had attacked 41 towns or villages in the provinces of Lugansk and Donetsk.
Some of the bloodiest hostilities are centered on the city of Severodonetsk, in Lugansk, and its twin city of Lisichansk, which the Russian Army has been constantly bombing and trying to encircle and take over for weeks. The two towns are some of the last large ones Ukraine still controls in Donbas, which borders western Russia.
In Moscow, the Defense Ministry said yesterday that its forces destroyed a large Ukrainian military unit and all its equipment in an attack on a Donbas train station.
Zelensky has said several times in recent weeks that he was confident of defeating Russia amid claims by the United States and the United Kingdom that the Russian offensive was not advancing. Its foreign minister, Dmitro Kuleba, went so far as to say that Ukraine was no longer satisfied with the supposed defeat inflicted on Russia in kyiv and that it was now going for the expulsion of the invading troops from the five Ukrainian provinces that they occupy totally or partially, including the two of the Donbas and others in the south.
Members of the Russian high command and Western intelligence point out that Vladimir Putin’s ultimate goal is to occupy and annex all of eastern and southern Ukraine, drastically reducing the country’s territory and depriving it of access to the sea. Likewise, this would allow it to achieve territorial contiguity to the Russian-speaking and separatist area of Transnistria, in Moldova.
Turn
Now, changing his tone, Zelensky said that the situation in Donbas is “extremely difficult”.
“The enemy is clearly superior in terms of equipment and number of soldiers” in Donbass, the president said yesterday in his usual overnight message to the nation. “We need help from our partners and especially weapons,” he added.
The Ukrainian deputy defense minister yesterday insisted on the same discursive line.
“The fighting (in Donbas) has reached its maximum intensity and we have before us a long and extremely difficult period,” he told reporters.
The governor of Luhansk, Sergi Gaidai, joined the alarm. “The task is extremely difficult because we have had three months of constant attacks and shelling. Now all Russian forces are deployed here; we have to contain this horde,” he said on Telegram.
According to him, much of the Ukrainian military infrastructure has been destroyed.
“Little by little our guys are retreating to more fortified positions. It is very hard, extremely difficult, but they are hanging on,” he added.
Gaidai warned yesterday that Russian troops were so close to Severodonetsk that they could already attack it with mortars.
The pro-Russian separatist militias that have controlled territories in Donbas since 2014 said yesterday that Severodonetsk was under “operational encirclement”, surrounded from three fronts. You can only get out of it over a bridge under Russian control, they added.
The Donetsk governor said four civilians were killed Wednesday night in Russian strikes.
Governor Pavlo Kirilenko said on his Telegram account that the deadly attacks occurred in the cities of Liman, Sidorov and Beoresto, the Europa Press news agency reported yesterday that Russia already controls 90% of Donetsk.
Meanwhile, the governor of Ukraine’s Kharkiv province, which borders Donbas and Russia, said yesterday that at least four civilians were killed and seven wounded in attacks on the capital Kharkov, Ukraine’s second-largest city.
Oleg Siniehubov called on city residents to stay in shelters.
Source: Ambito
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