KYIV: Russian troops have captured or entered around a half-dozen villages on Ukraine’s eastern front over the past week, highlighting the deteriorating situation in the region for outgunned and outnumbered Ukrainian forces as they wait for long-needed US military aid.
“The situation at the front has worsened,” Gen. Oleksandr Syrsky, Ukraine’s top commander, said in a statement Sunday in which he announced that his troops had retreated from two villages west of Avdiivka, a Ukrainian stronghold in the east that Russia seized earlier this year, and another village farther south.
Military experts say Moscow’s recent advances reflect its desire to exploit a window of opportunity to press ahead with attacks before the first batch of a new US military aid package arrives in Ukraine to help relieve its troops. Congress recently approved $60 billion in military aid for Ukraine, and Prez Biden signed it last week.
During a visit to Kyiv on Monday, Nato secretary-general Jens Stoltenberg said the many months it took Congress to approve new military aid to Ukraine and Europe’s failure to deliver ammunition on time had led to “serious consequences on the battlefield”. “When we are not delivering as we should, then Ukrainians are paying the price,” he said.