On Friday, Ukraine issued a warning stating that a crucial frontline town was facing continuous shelling from advancing Russian forces, while Moscow announced the capture of another small village.
As Russia makes gains on the battlefield, Ukraine reported destroying at least six military planes in a significant drone attack on a Russian airbase, one of the most substantial assaults in weeks.
Empowered by their numerical superiority and superior weaponry, Russian troops are actively pushing forward.
The focus of their advance appears to be the Ukrainian town of Chasiv Yar in the eastern Donetsk region.
Sergiy Chaus, the head of the Chasiv Yar military administration, expressed the escalating danger: “The town has become even more perilous… There is constant gunfire; silence is a luxury of the past.”
Reports from both Ukrainian and Russian military bloggers suggest that Russian troops have reached the outskirts of the town, although Chaus refrained from confirming this directly. He noted that approximately 770 people still reside there and lamented the extensive damage: “Not a single building remains intact.”
Chasiv Yar serves as a crucial logistics center for Kyiv’s forces and is situated a few kilometers west of Bakhmut, which suffered extensive damage from months of artillery fire before falling to Russian control last May.
Following its recent territorial gains since seizing Bakhmut, Russia is now pushing to advance further against Ukrainian units facing challenges due to delays in receiving essential Western military aid.
In the southern region, Russia’s military claimed on Friday to have captured the small village of Vodiane, located on the outskirts of Donetsk city.
Despite the challenges, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky asserted on Thursday that his forces had managed to stabilize their positions and halt Russian advances, despite facing shortages of ammunition and significant delays in supply deliveries.
