On Friday, Russian troops attacked the northern and southern sectors of the front in eastern Ukraine in Donbass, continuing the offensive despite claims from Kiev that Moscow’s offensive in the Bakhmut region is weakening .
Ukrainian military reports describe heavy fighting in the north along the Liman front in Kupyansk, as well as in the south near Avdiivka, located on the outskirts of Donetsk.
These areas were the main targets of Russia during the winter offensive campaign aimed at the complete capture of Donbass. The Russian offensive has made little progress so far, despite the deaths of thousands of soldiers on both sides in some of the bloodiest fighting since the start of the war.
Ukrainian servicemen stationed in a dense forest behind the northern sector of the front fired 155 mm shells from a French TRF-1 howitzer along the highway, which is used as a supply route by Kremennaya, under control Russian.
“Luckily we are in the same position,” a soldier with the call sign “Greenwich” told Reuters. – Because we have a very strong enemy with very good weapons. And it’s a professional army: airborne troops.
The front line in Ukraine has remained virtually unchanged since November, despite the bloodiest fighting since the start of the war. Ukraine regained some territory in the second half of 2022, but since then has largely maintained a defensive position, while Russia has launched a massive offensive with hundreds of thousands of reservists and freshly conscripted prisoners recruited from the prisons as mercenaries.
With the arrival of spring, the main question in Ukraine is how long Russia can continue its offensive operations and when Ukraine can reverse the trend by planning a counter-offensive.
On Thursday, the commander of Ukraine’s ground forces said the Russian offensive on Bakhmut appeared to be running out of steam and that Kiev could launch a counteroffensive “very soon”. So far, Ukrainian forces remain focused on preventing Russian forces from advancing more than 300 kilometers from the Donbass front, from Kupyansk in the north to Vuhledar in the south.
“All day yesterday the enemy tried to attack in the direction of Avdiivka,” said Aleksey Dmitrashkovsky, head of the joint press center of the Tauride leadership. – The shelling of Avdiivka does not stop – artillery, rockets, mortars. It’s sad to see how people survive who don’t want to leave, especially the elderly.
Serhiy Cherevaty, spokesman for Ukraine’s Group of Eastern Forces, which is responsible for the front line further north, said Russia has recently focused on the stretch from Kupyansk to Liman, territory taken over by the Ukrainian forces last year.
Both said the Russians reinforced their units after heavy losses. Similar information about the fighting in the region from the Russian side, which has long claimed to inflict heavy losses on the Ukrainians, has not been received.
In Konstantinovka, west of Bakhmut, a Russian rocket hit a shelter that was heating civilians, killing at least three women, local authorities said. Photographs released by the emergency services show the collapsed building. There was no immediate Russian response to the reports.
In the northern Sumy region, as a result of Russian shelling, which killed two civilians, an administrative building, a school building and residential buildings were damaged, the office of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said.
Russia said its forces destroyed a hangar with Ukrainian drones in the Odessa region.
