“It is as if the leaders of Ukraine are trying to prepare the nation for a major defeat”summarizes the independent Russian site Jellyfish. Worried about the advance of the Russians in the Donbass, kyiv described Thursday a Russian military offensive of“maximum intensity” and an extremely difficult situation in eastern Ukrainian territory. “The current offensive of the occupiers in the Donbass could make the region uninhabited”Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in his televised address on Thursday night to Friday, accusing Russian forces of seeking to “reduce to ashes” several towns in the region.
According to GuardianLuhansk Governor Serhiy Haidai said only 5% of his region now remained in Ukrainian hands – down from around 10% just over a week ago – and that Ukrainian forces were retreating towards other regions.
Supported by a deluge of bombs, the Russian army particularly threatens Severodonetsk, a city of 100,000 inhabitants before the war, which could meet the same fate as Mariupol, the southeastern port largely destroyed after weeks of siege . Serhi Lapko and Vitaliy Khrus, two Ukrainian volunteer fighters told the Washington Post their daily life in the region. According to Khrus, the situation has deteriorated considerably in recent weeks.
“A potato a day”
The bombardments of the Russians notably interrupted the supply chains, forcing the two men to be satisfied sometimes with a potato a day. “It’s a miracle that the Russians failed to break through our line of defense in Toshikivka”explains Krhus who affirms that his group is equipped only with rifles and grenades to fight against the opposing army.
For Jean-Marc Rickli, Director of Global and Emerging Risks at the Center for Security Policy in Geneva, Russian progress should however be put into perspective. “In recent days, Russian forces have managed to make some notable advances in Donbass, but they do not represent a turning point in this war. Rather, they symbolize Russian determination to achieve a tactical victory”says the security expert in a column published on the website of the Swiss daily The weather.
“Donetsk Oblast will be a bigger chunk, because the further west the Russians advance, the more they will have to expand their pincers. Indeed, the Russian army is progressing, because it has concentrated its forces in the battle of Severodonetsk and Lyssychansk. In recent weeks, Moscow has scaled back its operational ambitions and given up encircling Ukrainian troops more broadly.” he remarks. The more the Russian army advances and expands the front, the more it will have to disperse, stretch its supply lines and expose itself to Ukrainian strikes. In the camp opposite, the closer the theater of operations is to western Ukraine, the more the delivery of weapons supplied by the West to less distant fronts will be facilitated.
On Thursday, Russian forces, which had halted their offensive on Kharkiv to concentrate more troops in eastern and southern Ukraine, resumed their shelling of the northeastern city. Russian fire left 9 dead and 19 injured, all civilians, including a five-month-old baby, says Euronews.