Russian army is pushing the accelerator in eastern Ukraine before Western weapons arrive

According to the Ukrainian army, the Russians have gathered a force of more than 20,000 soldiers near the important town of Chasiv Yar on the eastern front. President Volodymyr Zelensky and commander Oleksandr Syrsky have been warning for days that the Kremlin wants to capture Chasiv Yar before May 9. On that day, the Russians celebrate the victory over Nazi Germany. If the place falls, President Vladimir Putin can once again tell the Russians on Victory Day that the battle is going well.

Chasiv Yar, in the Donbas region of Donetsk, is just one of the places along the hundreds of kilometers of defense line on the eastern front where the Russians are trying to break through. Russia is cautiously making territorial gains in various places, taking advantage of the Ukrainian shortage of artillery shells and air defense weapons.

According to the Pentagon, the first new weapons, including the Atacms missile to strike deep behind Russian lines, could be delivered within one to two weeks. The faster Western arms assistance gets underway, the less time remains for Russian units to advance.

Tactical gain

“The Russian military is likely to continue making tactical gains on the battlefield in the coming weeks as it intensifies its offensive operations in anticipation of the arrival of Western aid,” said the US Institute for the Study of War (ISW), which has been closely monitoring the war. maps.

Chasiv Yar is located about 10 kilometers west of Bachmut and almost 50 kilometers north of Avdiivka. The capture of these two towns is the only significant military victory of the Russian army in the past year, in the difficult attempts to take over the Donetsk region. Donetsk, which together with Luhansk forms the Donbas, is still half in Ukrainian hands, much to the chagrin of the Kremlin.

Ukrainian situation worsened

The fall of Chasiv Yar would offer Russian combat units the opportunity to advance towards the larger cities of Kramatorsk and Slovyansk, deeper into Donetsk. “Their only goal is to advance to the borders of the Donetsk region,” army spokesman Voloshyn said. On Ukrainian television he described how Russian soldiers, including airborne troops, are trying to storm Ukrainian positions with large-scale violence.

Under the cover of drones and artillery, the Russians launched the attack with their infantry fighting vehicles. The air force, in turn, is trying to bombard the Ukrainians’ defense lines with devastating ‘floating bombs’ weighing around 500 and 1,500 kilos to break their resistance.

“The Russian artillery fire is quite active and intensive,” Voloshyn emphasized. According to him, the situation on the eastern front has deteriorated in recent days as a result of the Russian attacks.

Offensive

The Ukrainian army now faces the task of quickly bringing the new US arms aid, which the Senate is expected to approve on Tuesday, to the more than a thousand kilometer long front in the coming weeks. The British government has also pledged more weapons, including new Storm Shadow cruise missiles to destroy Russian headquarters and warehouses.

The first artillery shells must be delivered in May, for which the Czech Republic has taken the initiative. “We expect a fairly difficult situation in the short term,” Ukrainian military intelligence chief Kyrylo Budanov told the BBC on Friday. He mentioned the period from mid-May to early June. Budanov was referring to President Zelensky’s recent warning that the Russians are preparing for a major offensive in May or June.