As President Joe Biden builds support for Ukraine in France’s fight against Russia, ammunition and weaponry from an aid package approved by Congress this spring are arriving on the front lines in sufficient quantities to help stabilize defenses, soldiers and commanders said in interviews .
However, Russia still has artillery superiority, which will be crucial in the war in Ukraine.
Ukrainian artillery can now fire at Russian troops more frequently, Lieutenant Denis Yaroslavsky, commander of northeastern Ukraine, said on Thursday. City Kharkov advances.
Russia’s offensive has essentially stalled. But in the Donbas region of Ukraine, south of Kharkiv, Russia launched another attack on Ukrainian defense lines.
Despite the fierce and bloody fighting, overall there have been no major shifts on the front lines in more than two weeks, according to satellite maps of the battlefield compiled by soldiers on the front lines, military reports and independent monitoring groups.
Let’s take a look at the situation on the battlefield.
Kharkiv Oblast
On May 10, Russia struck across the border into northeastern Ukraine, raising concerns that its forces could advance as far as Kharkiv, or at least within artillery range of the city. Moving artillery such as howitzers closer to Kharkov would allow Russian forces to bombard the city more intensely and effectively. Currently, Russia has to rely on longer-range aerial bombs and missiles, which are more expensive than artillery shells.
But to get within artillery range, the Russian Army needs to advance at least as it has for the past three weeks.
Russian troops advanced about six miles into Ukraine before becoming bogged down when they encountered heavily fortified Ukrainian positions, according to Ukrainian commanders. Commanders also said more Ukrainian troops had arrived to halt the Russian advance and that more U.S. ammunition was arriving at frontline positions.
Lieutenant Yaroslavsky said in an interview that by last week, Ukrainian forces had enough ammunition to hold Russia to its current position. “Our artillery is striking” concentrations of Russian troops, he said.
The fiercest fighting was in the streets of Wovchansk, a town about four miles south of the Russian border divided between two armies, according to the Kharkiv Regional Military Administration. After four weeks of fighting, the town was deserted and largely destroyed.
Lieutenant Yaroslavsky said Ukraine might nonetheless be able to disrupt nearby Russian logistics by launching an attack inside Russia, thereby retaining its soldiers in the town, where they fought in basements and in the ruins of buildings. In a policy shift last week, the Biden administration joined six other Western allies of Ukraine in allowing such attacks using weapons they provide to Ukrainian forces.
Lieutenant Yaroslavsky said: “Previously, our artillery batteries were very cautious about the number of shells they could use and would not try to fire on a small number of Russian soldiers.” He said the artillery has changed its tactics and is now again targeting small Russian units. Attack on Ukrainian defense lines.
Oleksandr Buktar, a Ukrainian National Guard lieutenant fighting near the village of Luptsi, said he was awakened by a radio message around 7 a.m. on Wednesday: A force of seven Russians had arrived Arriving at the Ukrainian trenches, a gun battle was raging. In an interview, he said such fights were common. “We were attacked by infantry two to three times a day,” he said.
Lieutenant Bukta said he responded with skillful procedures, emphasizing the importance of artillery ammunition. He ordered a drone to fly over the trenches and then ordered his artillery to attack the area in front of the Ukrainian trenches where the Russians were advancing. “We use everything we have,” he said of artillery ammunition.
donbas region
Ukrainian and Western military analysts say Russia’s strategy of opening a new front north of Kharkov is aimed at expanding Ukraine’s limited military strength and weakening its defenses in the Donbass industrial and agricultural region to the south.
Russian forces have been advancing in the area at a small, slow but bloody pace.
After seizing the Donbas city of Bakhmut a year ago, Russia advanced about three miles across open fields to the eastern edge of the town of Chasiv Yar, but then stalled near an irrigation canal.
Defending Chasiv Yar was considered strategically important as the town was located on high ground and its loss would have opened the door for further Russian advances towards larger communities to the west and north. According to satellite maps of the battlefield, Russia last launched a ground operation into Chasiv Yar last week.
Rob Lee, a senior fellow at the Foreign Policy Institute’s Eurasia Program, said the calm suggested Russian forces were “not taking advantage of the Kharkov offensive, although they managed to get Ukraine to withdraw some troops from Ukraine.”
According to satellite maps, southern Donbass has been the area with the most intense fighting in recent weeks.
In February, the Russians captured the city of Avdievka, breaking through the first line of defense, and since then they have stormed forward, seizing village after village. They have not yet reached the Ukrainian second line of defense near the village of Kalivka.
According to Ukrainian soldiers, Russian troops made another small advance in that direction near the village of Sokil during the night between Wednesday and Thursday.
During that engagement, Russians in armored personnel carriers attacked Ukrainian defenders near Sokil. A sergeant with Ukraine’s 47th Brigade, which asked to be revealed by its call sign Sapsan, said its troops tried to fight back with U.S.-supplied Bradley fighting vehicles. However, the Bradley’s guns malfunctioned, and the Russian troops dismounted and attacked a position.
Sapsang said this was an example of Russia’s strategy of launching probing attacks to find weaknesses. Often, he said, such attacks are “a one-way ticket for soldiers.” But, he added, they provided intelligence to the Russians to prepare for an attack by larger forces.
“They always do this, spy on our positions and are willing to destroy an armored personnel carrier and personnel to do so,” he said, referring to Russia’s losses. Sapsan said that in contrast to the fighting north of Kharkov, Russia also launched a larger battalion-level attack in the Donbas campaign, with up to 500 troops.
“The enemy did not stop advancing and continued to shell our positions,” Colonel Nazar Voloshin, spokesman for Ukraine’s eastern military command, said in an interview.
He said the Russians were now pushing towards a highway between the medium-sized towns of Pokrovsk and Kulakhov and the towns of Pokrovsk and Kostantinivka, which linked the southern Donbass are connected to northern towns.
Analysts say the arrival of Western aid has made it easier for Ukraine to defend its position, but has yet to have a decisive impact. “The main change brought about by Biden’s decision will not be on the battlefield, but in all the countries that follow suit,” said Ben Barry, senior fellow for land warfare at the International Institute for Strategic Studies.
Mr Lee said Russia retained significant manpower and firepower advantages and was likely to remain on the offensive for much of the year. “But at some point,” he said, it could face a shortage of tanks and armored vehicles. “Since October we have seen large numbers of tanks and armored vehicles operating on the Avdiivka front. These loss rates may not be sustainable in the long term.
