Although President Joe Biden on Wednesday signed legislation allowing long-awaited foreign aid to Kyiv, it didn't come in time to prevent Russia from seizing several villages in eastern Ukraine over the past week.
Ukrainian troops have pulled back from several of the villages captured by Russia's army in the eastern Donetsk region in recent days, The Wall Street Journal reported Monday, as Russia continues to exploit its advantage in soldiers and munitions.
Ukraine's vulnerability after months of delays in the arrival aid from the U.S. and Western allies, and its inability to mobilize more men to restock front-line forces, was evident in recent losses west of Avdiivka, a strategic city captured by Russian troops in February.
"The situation at the front worsened," Ukraine's commander in chief, Col. Gen. Oleksandr Syrskiy, said Sunday, according to the Journal. "[The enemy is] actively attacking along the entire front line with tactical success in some areas."
Russia is making incremental gains toward its goal of taking all of Ukraine's eastern industrial heartland in the Donbas region, even though it hasn't been able to stage a large-scale breakthrough to precipitate significant advances.
The cities of Chasiv Yar and Pokrovsk to the north are key targets that would allow Russia to threaten Ukraine's main defensive line in the Donbas, Vienna-based defense analyst Franz-Stefan Gady told the Journal.
Ukraine has struggled to stabilize the front line since Russian forces seized the heavily fortified city of Avdiivka — a loss U.S. officials and troops on the ground attributed directly to delays in aid.
"In military parlance, we are in the middle of a so-called shaping phase of an offensive," Gady said. "The main aim of these Russian attacks is to slowly grind down Ukrainian defenses along the front line to enable Russian ground forces to maneuver and capture tactically and operationally important military objectives."
Michael Katz ✉
Michael Katz is a Newsmax reporter with more than 30 years of experience reporting and editing on news, culture, and politics.
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