Ukrainian military reports reported intense fighting in the northern sector of the front line from Liman to Kobyansk, as well as in the south in Avdiivka on the outskirts of the Russian-controlled city of Donetsk.
The two regions are among the main targets of Russia’s offensives launched over the winter to take full control of Ukraine’s industrial Donbass region.
The Russian offensive has so far yielded only minor gains, despite the deaths of thousands of soldiers on both sides in the bloodiest battle of the war.
At a Ukrainian artillery position in the lush pine forests behind the northern part of the front, troops fired 155mm rounds from a French TRF-1 howitzer at a highway used to transport supplies to the Russian-held stronghold of Kremina.
“Fortunately we are keeping the same position. Because we are facing a very strong enemy with very good weapons. It is a professional army: airborne forces,” one soldier told Reuters.
The situation on the front lines has hardly changed since November, despite heavy fighting.
Ukraine regained vast swaths of territory in the second half of 2022, but its forces have maintained a defensive stance since then, while Russia has taken an offensive stance and hired the services of hundreds of thousands of new reservists and convicts in its prisons.
civilians of Bakhmut
- As spring enters, Ukrainians are wondering how long the Russian offensive can last and if and when Ukraine can reverse the war and launch a counterattack.
- ICRC: 10,000 Ukrainians, many of them elderly and people of determination, cling to life in appalling conditions in and around the besieged city of Bakhmut.
- The committee explained: Civilians spend entire days hiding in shelters from the intense bombardment.
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