The Russian army claimed on Sunday to have conquered a new village in eastern Ukraine, Ocheretyne, a new sign of the push of Moscow’s forces against the Ukrainian army.
KEYSTONE
The Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement that its soldiers had “completely liberated” this village in the Donetsk region located northwest of Avdiivka, a town that fell in February.
In recent months, Moscow has regularly claimed control of small towns in the area.
On Thursday, his army claimed to have captured Berdytchi, also close to Avdiïvka.
The Ukrainian army has been on the defensive since the failure of its major counter-offensive last summer.
Russia has the initiative against an adversary which is struggling to recruit new soldiers and is faced with slowness in Western aid.
The resumption of American military assistance, after the validation at the end of April of a $61 billion aid plan for kyiv, should allow Ukraine to consolidate its forces and attempt to stabilize the front, particularly in the is in the areas of Chassiv Iar and Avdiïvka.
kyiv is all the more in difficulty because it lacks anti-aircraft defense means, which has allowed the Russians to bomb essential infrastructure, in particular the electricity network and railway lines.
The commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian army, Oleksandr Syrsky, recently admitted that the situation on the front had “deteriorated”.
Ukraine now fears that Russia will launch an even more powerful offensive in the coming weeks.
ATS
