Ukraine’s military chief warns of ‘significant’ worsening of battlefield situation in east

kyiv, Ukraine (AP) — Ukraine’s military chief warned Saturday that the battlefield situation in the industrial east has “significantly deteriorated in recent days” as global warming has allowed Russian forces to launch a new offensive on several sections of more than 1,000 km. long front line (620 miles).

In an update on messaging app Telegram, Gen. Oleksandr Syrskyy said Moscow had “significantly” stepped up its attacks since. President Vladimir Putin Last month, he extended his rule by almost a quarter of a century in predetermined elections that saw anti-war candidates excluded from the ballot and independent voices silenced in a Kremlin-backed media blockade.

According to Syrsky, Russian forces “actively attacked” Ukrainian positions in three areas of the eastern Donetsk region, near the towns of Lyman, Bakhmut and Pokrovsk, and began launching tank assaults amid drier spring weather. and warmer made it easier. heavy vehicles from moving on previously muddy terrain.

“Despite significant losses, the enemy is intensifying its efforts using new units (equipped with) armored vehicles, thanks to which it periodically achieves tactical successes,” Syrsky said.

A spokesperson for the Russian Defense Ministry confirmed on Saturday the capture of a village which had been the scene of violent fighting for almost eighteen months. Analysts from the Ukrainian non-governmental group Deep State, which tracks developments on the front lines, reported Russia’s takeover of Pervomaiske, about 45 kilometers (28 miles) southeast of Pokrovsk, in the early hours of Thursday.

On Saturday, the group said in a Telegram update that Moscow forces had also taken Bohdanivka, another eastern village close to the town of Bakhmut, where the war’s bloodiest battle raged for nine months until it fell into Russian hands last May. Ukraine’s Defense Ministry soon after denied that Bohdanivka had been captured and said “intense fighting” was continuing there.

As the war in Ukraine enters its third year and a vital U.S. aid plan for kyiv stalls in Congress, Russian troops are stepping up pressure on exhausted Ukrainian forces on the front lines to prepare to seize more land this spring and summer.

Russia has relied on its firepower and personnel to step up attacks in eastern Ukraine. It has increasingly used satellite-guided glide bombs – which allow planes to drop them from a safe distance – to strike Ukrainian forces facing a shortage of troops and ammunition.

Also on Saturday, Germany announced it would provide an additional Patriot air defense system to Ukraine, days after Russian missiles and drones struck infrastructure and power facilities in several regions on Thursday, leaving hundreds thousands of homes without electricity, according to a private energy operator. DTEK is described as one of the most powerful attacks this year. The German Defense Ministry said it would “immediately begin the transfer” of the Patriot system, without providing a specific timetable.

In an update on declared that Berlin “would stand unbreakably alongside Ukraine. »

Putin described the strikes as retaliation for Ukrainian attacks on Russian energy infrastructure, after a series of Ukrainian drone strikes in recent months hit oil refineries deep inside Russia.

Since last month, Moscow has renewed its assault on Ukrainian energy facilities. On Thursday, it completely destroyed a power plant that was the largest energy supplier to the Kiev region, as well as the neighboring provinces of Cherkasy and Zhytomyr.

At least ten of these strikes damaged energy infrastructure in Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second largest city. Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said more than 200,000 people in the region were without electricity and that Russia was “trying to destroy Kharkiv’s infrastructure and leave the city in darkness.”

Energy facilities were also affected in the Zaporizhzhia and Lviv regions.

The volume and precision of recent attacks have alarmed the country’s defenders, who say Kremlin forces now have better intelligence and new tactics in their campaign to wipe out Ukraine’s power grid and cripple its economy.

During the winter of 2022-2023, Russia targeted Ukraine’s power grid in an effort to deprive civilians of light and heat and reduce the country’s appetite for war.

In southern Ukraine occupied by Russia, a local official installed by the Kremlin blamed Kiev for the bombing that killed 10 people, including children, the day before in a town in the southern region of Zaporizhzhia.

The Tokmak municipal administration reported on Telegram that the bombings hit three buildings on Friday evening. Five people were pulled alive from the rubble and 13 people were hospitalized, according to Kremlin-based regional leader Yevhen Balitsky. It was not immediately possible to verify his claims.

Ukrainian officials did not immediately acknowledge or comment on the attack.

Meanwhile, in Ukraine, a Russian drone on Saturday dropped explosives on an ambulance that had been called to a village near the border town of Kupiansk, injuring its 58-year-old driver, local governor Oleh Syniehubov reported. His claim could not be independently verified.