American munitions reached Ukrainian brigades and now they are exploding

By early April, Ukrainian forces were in crisis. The US Congress has yet to approve long-stalled $61 billion in funding for Ukraine’s war effort. Likewise, an urgent mobilization law – meant to raise tens of thousands of new soldiers for Ukraine’s armed forces – was stalled in kyiv.

Understrength and deprived of the ammunition they obtained from the United States, the Ukrainian brigades were at their weakest. And the Kremlin knew it. At several points along the 600-mile front line of Russia’s 27-month war against Ukraine, the Russians attacked.

A month later, American aid to Ukraine is flowing again. The mobilization law is in force, new Ukrainian troops are being trained and new brigades are being formed.

The situation in Ukraine is improving. Nowhere is this more evident than in Chasiv Yar, the industrial town west of Donetsk in eastern Ukraine that is the main target of the Russian offensive in the region.

At the start of the Russian attack, Russian armored units advanced steadily north and south of Chasiv Yar while Russian infantry probed the city’s most vulnerable district: the canal district, which lies on the other exposed side of the canal which runs from north to south. along the eastern boundary of Chasiv Yar.

At the time, Ukrainian defenses at Chasiv Yar were thin – and getting thinner. In mid-April, the Kiev Defense Ministry disbanded the Ukrainian military brigade defending the canal district, the 67th Mechanized Brigade, after an official investigation confirmed allegations of deep incompetence on the part of the brigade headquarters.

Elements of the Ukrainian Army’s 56th and 41st Mechanized Brigades and the 5th Assault Brigade rushed to fill the gap in the defensive line left by the disbandment of the 67th Mechanized Brigade. Kyiv dispatched more drones to Chasiv Yar.

But in the meantime, Russian Sukhoi Su-25 attack jets flew directly over the front line, firing rockets at Ukrainian troops who were running low on air defense missiles. Russian paratroopers advanced north and south of Chasiv Yar, threatening to surround the town’s garrison.

The race was on between Russian forces attempting to capture Chasiv Yar and Ukrainian and allied logisticians rushing US-supplied munitions to the besieged city.

The good news for friends of a free Ukraine is that the Ukrainians appear to have won the race. The Chasiv Yar garrison is now overflowing with ammunition, apparently, and is wreaking havoc among the Russian assault groups.

On Friday, a battalion of around 20 Russian armored vehicles emerged from Donetsk and headed towards Chasiv Yar. Just a few weeks ago, a Russian assault group could have covered much of the five-kilometer distance between Donetsk and Chasiv Yar relatively unmolested by Ukrainian attacks.

With few anti-tank missiles and artillery shells, the Ukrainians relied on first-person drones to bombard the Russians. But these two-pound drones only cover about two miles and carry just a pound of explosives — too little to pierce the layers of do-it-yourself armor that the Russians have added to their vehicles.

By mid-May, the Ukrainians were much better armed. So when this assault group tried to cross miles of open fields on Friday, it was hit all the way – with 100-pound shells, 50-pound missiles. And two-pound drones. The few Russians who reached the canal district did not last long.

“Despite rapid successes during the first weeks of the assault on Chasiv Yar, including reaching the canal and, in some cases, crossing it with small groups, the Russians ultimately failed to gain a foothold. “other side and to move forward further,” said the Ukrainian. The analysis group Frontelligence Insight reported on Friday.

The Chasiv Yar garrison is not the only one to benefit from the influx of ammunition. “For the first time during the war, none of the brigades complained about the absence of artillery shells,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Thursday.

Zelensky may be exaggerating the abundance of ammunition. But it is clear that when the Russians attacked Chasiv Yar on Friday, the Ukrainians had enough firepower to launch an attack on them.

Sources:

1. Frontelligence Insight: https://frontelligence.substack.com/p/frontlines-situation-report-may-17th

2. Independent from Kyiv: https://kyivindependent.com/zelensky-progress-made-on-artillery-shortage/

3. Kraken Drone Group: https://x.com/Osinttechnical/status/1791892152953282734