Ukraine’s army chief warned on Saturday that the situation on the battlefield in the industrial east had “deteriorated significantly in recent days” as warming weather allowed Russian forces to launch a new push along many parts of the 1,000km front. (620 miles) line.
In an update on messaging app Telegram, General Oleksandr Syrskyy said Moscow had “significantly” stepped up its attacks since President Vladimir Putin extended his nearly quarter-century rule in a snap election last month where anti-war candidates were barred from the ballot and independent voices were silenced in a Kremlin-backed media blockade.
According to Syrskyy, Russian forces are “actively attacking” Ukrainian positions in three areas of the eastern Donetsk region, near the towns of Lyman, Bakhmut and Pokrovsk, and have begun launching tank attacks as drier, warmer spring weather has facilitated heavy vehicles to move on previously muddy ground.
“Despite significant losses, the enemy is intensifying its efforts using new units (equipped with) armored vehicles, thanks to which it periodically achieves tactical success,” Syrskyy said.
A Russian Defense Ministry spokesman confirmed on Saturday the capture of a village that had been the site of fierce fighting for nearly eighteen months. Analysts from Ukraine’s non-governmental group Deep State, which monitors developments on the front lines, had reported Russia’s takeover of Pervomaiske, about 45 kilometers (28 miles) southeast of Pokrovsk, early Thursday.
On Saturday, the group said in a Telegram update that Moscow forces also captured Bohdanivka, another eastern village near the city of Bakhmut, where the bloodiest battle of the war raged for nine months until it fell to Russia last May. Ukraine’s defense ministry later denied that Bokhdanivka had been captured and said “intense fighting” continued there.
With the war in Ukraine entering its third year and a vital US aid package for Kiev stuck in Congress, Russian troops are stepping up pressure on depleted Ukrainian frontline forces to prepare to grab more land this spring and the summer.
Russia has relied on its superiority in firepower and personnel to step up attacks in eastern Ukraine. It is increasingly using satellite-guided glide bombs – which allow planes to drop them from a safe distance – to hit Ukrainian forces suffering from a shortage of troops and ammunition.
Also on Saturday, Germany announced it would deliver an additional Patriot air defense system to Ukraine, days after Russian missiles and drones hit infrastructure and power plants in several regions on Thursday, leaving hundreds of thousands of homes without power. DTEK has been labeled as one of the most powerful attacks this year. The German defense ministry said it would “start delivery” of the Patriot system immediately, without giving an exact timetable.
In an update on X, formerly known as Twitter, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said he had discussed with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Saturday the “massive” Russian airstrikes on civilian energy infrastructure and said Berlin would “unwaveringly stand by of Ukraine. “
Putin described the strikes as retaliation for Ukrainian attacks on Russia’s energy infrastructure, following a series of Ukrainian drone strikes in recent months that hit oil refineries deep inside Russia.
Since last month, Moscow has renewed its attack on Ukrainian energy facilities. On Thursday it completely shut down a plant that was the biggest supplier of energy to the region around Kiev, as well as the neighboring provinces of Cherkasy and Zhytomyr.
At least 10 of the 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 power and Russia was “trying to destroy Kharkiv’s infrastructure and leave the city in darkness.”
Energy facilities were also hit in 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 fresh tactics in their campaign to wipe out Ukraine’s power grid and grind its economy to a halt.
In the winter of 2022-2023, Russia targeted Ukraine’s power grid in an attempt to deny civilians light and heat and to kill the country’s appetite for war.
In Ukraine’s Russian-held south, a local Kremlin official blamed Kiev for a bombing that killed 10 people, including children, in a town in the southern Zaporizhzhia region the previous day.
The Tokmak municipal administration reported on Telegram that the shelling hit three apartment buildings on Friday night. Five people were pulled alive from the rubble and 13 people were hospitalized, according to the Kremlin’s regional chief, Yeven 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 frontline town of Kupiansk, injuring its 58-year-old driver, local governor Oleh Syniehubov said. His claim could not be independently verified.