Just a few hundred residents stay within the embattled city of Vovchansk in northeast Ukraine, the place Kyiv’s troops are locked in intense battles with the Russian military, in line with native officers on Monday.
The city, whose pre-war inhabitants of 17,000 had dwindled to simply 2,500 earlier than Russia renewed its floor assault final week, has emerged as focus level as pitched battles engulf the Kharkiv and Donetsk areas.
Ukrainian native officers mentioned they feared Vovchansk’s destiny could mirror that of Bakhmut and Avdiivka, Ukrainian cities the place fierce combating and scorched earth techniques pressured Ukrainian withdrawals. Solely 200-300 folks stay within the city, Kharkiv regional governor Oleh Suniehubov mentioned, as Moscow’s troops advance in an effort to encompass it from three instructions.
Poorly constructed fortifications and enduring ammunition shortages enabled Russia’s sweeping advance within the space final week, native officers and troopers mentioned.
Within the span of two days, Moscow has captured some 106 sq. kilometres and at the least seven villages, most of them already depopulated, in line with the open supply monitoring undertaking DeepState.
It’s a important advance that might pin Ukrainian forces within the northeast whereas heavy combating continues within the Donetsk area.
Ukrainian troops have been nonetheless locked in pitched battles in each areas, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy mentioned. Combating is going down close to the border in japanese and northeastern Ukraine as outgunned and outnumbered Ukrainian troopers attempt to maintain again a major Russian floor offensive.
“Defensive battles are ongoing, fierce battles, on a big a part of our border space,” Zelenskyy mentioned in his nightly video handle Sunday.
The Kremlin’s forces are aiming to use Ukrainian weaknesses earlier than an enormous batch of recent army help for Kyiv from the U.S. and European companions arrives on the battlefield within the coming weeks and months, analysts say. That makes this era a window of alternative for Moscow and some of the harmful for Kyiv within the two-year conflict, they are saying. It’s unclear what of the promised help has arrived to Ukraine.
The brand new Russian push within the northeastern Kharkiv area, together with the continuing drive into the japanese Donetsk area, come after months when the roughly 1,000-kilometre entrance line barely budged. Within the meantime, each side have used long-range strikes to pursue what grew to become largely a conflict of attrition.
Ukraine’s normal workers mentioned late Sunday that Russian forces had performed at the least 22 assaults over the earlier 24 hours in two components of the Kharkiv area and had “tactical success.” The assertion didn’t elaborate.
