Ukrainian servicemen of the 92nd Separate Assault Brigade fire a M109A5 Paladin self-propelled howitzer towards Russian troops near the frontline town of Bakhmut, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Donetsk region, Ukraine, on Jan. 16.STRINGER/Reuters
Ukrainian troops have pulled out of a village in the east of the country, an army spokesman said Monday, as Russian forces display advantages in manpower and ammunition on the battlefield at the start of the war’s third year.
The latest setback for Kyiv’s soldiers was in the village of Lastochkyne, where they fell back to nearby villages in an attempt to hold the line there, Dmytro Lykhovii, a spokesman for one of the Ukrainian troop groupings, said on national television.
Lastochkyne lies to the west of Avdiivka, a suburb of Donetsk city that the Kremlin’s forces captured on Feb. 18 after a four-month battle. The outnumbered defenders were overwhelmed by Moscow’s military might, and Ukraine chose to pull out its troops and mount a defence elsewhere.
Russia’s Ministry of Defense said its troops had “liberated” Lastochkyne.
Russian state-owned news agency RIA Novosti quoted local commander Andrei Mordvichev as saying troops had pushed Ukrainian forces back by 10 kilometres and were continuing with their offensive. The agency said a key Ukrainian supply route ran through Lastochkyne.
It was not possible to independently verify each side’s claims.
Though not in itself a major loss, abandoning the village illustrates the battlefield challenges Ukraine is currently facing. The new phase of the war has brought some bleak developments for Ukraine.
Moscow’s troops are driving on, smashing towns and cities with their superior firepower, despite suffering high losses of troops and equipment, Ukraine says.
Western analysts say the Russians are attacking in strength along four parallel axes in the northeast, aiming to press deeper into the Ukraine-held western part of the Donetsk region and also penetrating into the Kharkiv region north of it.
Ukrainian Defense Minister Rustan Umerov complained Sunday that half of promised Western military support to Ukraine fails to arrive on time. That, he said, makes it hard to undertake proper military planning and ultimately costs the lives of soldiers.
Western leaders have sworn to stand by Ukraine as long as they need to defeat Russia’s full-scale invasion of Feb. 24, 2022, and Bulgarian Prime Minister Nikolay Denkov arrived in Kyiv on Monday to show his support.
More than 20 European heads of state and government and other Western officials met in Paris on Monday to discuss the war at what French President Emmanuel Macron called a “critical” juncture. Mr. Macron said Monday that sending Western troops on the ground in Ukraine is not “ruled out” in the future after the issue was debated at the gathering.
“There’s no consensus today to send in an official, endorsed manner troops on the ground. But in terms of dynamics, nothing can be ruled out,” Mr. Macron said in a news conference.
Mr. Macron cited the need to solidify security to head off any Russian attacks on additional countries in the future. Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia as well as much larger Poland have been considered among possible targets of future Russian expansionism. All four countries are staunch supporters of Ukraine.
Mr. Macron has invited his European counterparts to the Elysee palace for a hastily arranged meeting to discuss how to ramp up ammunition supplies to Ukraine amid what his advisers say is an escalation in Russian aggression over the past few weeks.
“There was a great sense of urgency,” Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte told reporters after the meeting. He added that leaders were getting behind a Czech initiative to buy ammunitions worldwide to send to Ukraine.
Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala said about 15 states had signed up to the initiative to buy hundreds of thousands of ammunition rounds from third countries, something that France has initially been cautious about as it wants to prioritize the development of Europe’s own industry, but French officials said they were warming to it.
Ammunition supplies have become a critical issue for Kyiv. The European Union, though, is falling short of its target of sending Ukraine a million rounds of artillery shells by March.
U.S. President Joe Biden was also seeking to remove political roadblocks on providing more aid to Ukraine, convening the top four congressional leaders at the White House on Tuesday.
In other developments, Moscow-installed officials in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region claimed that Russian troops had destroyed a U.S.-made Abrams tank for the first time since they were deployed in Ukraine last fall, RIA Novosti reported.
A drone strike on the Russian city of Belgorod near the Ukraine border killed three people and wounded three more, regional Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said Monday evening.
Russia launched seven missiles of various types and 14 Shahed drones over Ukraine early Monday morning. Ukraine’s Air Force said it intercepted nine drones and three missiles.
A guided aerial bomb killed a married couple at home in the northeastern Sumy region of Ukraine, regional authorities said.