Ukraine is trying to open ditches and barriers of all kinds along the eastern front to slow the advance of Russian troops. He has no choice but to hunker down. The lack of men and, above all, weapons and ammunition, prevents him from acting in any other way.
The Russian army, however, advances from Bakhmut to the west and does the same from Avdiyivka, further south. These two squares, conquered after battles that left thousands dead, are now the platforms from which Russia threatens not only the first Ukrainian defensive line, but the second and third. Russian advance is slow but constant.
The United States has assured Ukraine that more ammunition and new weapons, especially long-range missiles capable of hitting targets about 300 kilometers away in the Russian rear, are on the way. The White House says they will arrive “very, very soon.” The speed with which they do so is critical so that Ukraine can reverse the situation on the battlefield before Russia conquers such important cities as Chásiv Yar, Kramatorsk or Sloviansk. Losing them would be a very hard blow for Ukraine.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky blames the Republican Party for Russia now having the initiative. For six months he has held up $61 billion in aid in Congress. It wasn’t until last week that he finally approved it.
Zelensky is confident that his troops will now be able to stabilize the front and go on the offensive.
It will not be easy. First because his army may be at the limit of its endurance. And second because the Russian army has also strengthened its positions around Avdíyivka.
Analysts at the Institute for the Study of War, based in the United States, confirm that Russia has been able to move quickly, but thanks to the fact that the Ukrainian army has preferred to give ground without offering resistance to entrench itself in a more convenient area.
The main objective of the Russian army is Chásiv Yar. From this square he could attack the entire Ukrainian defensive arc in Donetsk. It is the reinforcements in weapons and ammunition from the United States that can prevent this.
Russia has also increased drone and missile attacks against Ukraine’s battered energy infrastructure. Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second city, close to the Russian border, has also suffered new and more intense bombings.
Kremlin strategists are trying to reach critical infrastructure for the logistics and storage of the Ukrainian army. Hence, also, the thirty-five attacks on power plants during the last week, an offensive that is leaving Ukraine in the dark. Many of these plants are in the westernmost regions of the country, far from the front, but close to Poland and Romania, allies of Ukraine and NATO.
On Thursday and Friday, Russian attacks, for example, focused on the railway network, which was hit in three different regions.
Russia launches its ballistic and cruise missiles from the Black Sea Fleet and from bombers stationed at bases in the Arctic Circle and which now fly over the area very easily given the lamentable state of the Ukrainian anti-aircraft defenses.
The Patriot batteries that Spain and other countries have decided to send to Ukraine should rebalance a little the dominance of the sky over the theater of operations.
