According to the General Staff, the Ukrainian armed forces have repelled around 60 Russian attacks and shot down six drones since Easter Sunday. The enemy is most active in the Donetsk area in the east, the General Staff said in Kiev on Monday. The city of Cherson in the south was also hit by massive artillery fire. According to British intelligence, Moscow has also stepped up tank attacks on the eastern Ukrainian city of Marjinka in the past seven days.
Russia continues to use many resources in the region for minimal gains, the British Defense Ministry said in a briefing on Monday. The Donetsk region remains a high priority for Moscow. Donetsk is the largest city in the region of the same name, which was declared an independent people’s republic by Moscow-backed separatists. In the meantime, Moscow has annexed the area in violation of international law. The city of Marjinka, from which important transport routes run, has been fought over since 2014 and largely destroyed by rocket fire, according to the British report.
The focus of the fighting is said to be further in the city and in the Bakhmut area, also in the Donetsk region. The commander of the Ukrainian armed forces in the east, General Olexander Syrskyj, accused Russia of resorting to “scorched earth tactics” there – as before in Syria.
“Buildings and positions are being destroyed with airstrikes and artillery fire. The situation is difficult, but under control,” said Syrskyj on Monday. The Ukrainian troops would “heroically” withstand the Russian offensive at Bakhmut. They managed to wear out the units of the Russian private army Wagner, so the enemy was now forced to use special troops from the regular Russian armed forces. Burned-out house skeletons and piles of rubble from collapsed buildings could be seen in photos and videos.
Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin, on the other hand, recently said that his units in the city were making progress. He spoke of a weakening of the Ukrainian units due to the loss of supply routes. He did not want to comment on the support provided by regular Russian troops. The Ukrainian leadership had always emphasized that it would not give up the strategically important city of Bakhmut in order to prevent Russian troops from breaking through further inland. One of the aims of Russia in the war is to take over the entire Donetsk region.