KYIV, Ukraine — The Russian military launched a fierce attack on Ukrainian forces on Saturday in an attempt to dislodge them from key positions in eastern Ukraine, with Moscow seeking to secure the lines important supply lines and both armies vying for positions in the face of new offensive operations.
For months, Russia has been trying to break through Ukraine’s fortified defensive positions across the Luhansk and Donetsk regions, sending waves of troops into the fray and taking heavy casualties but winning little. territory.
Those efforts have become all the more urgent when Western and Ukrainian officials warn that Moscow plans to launch a large-scale offensive to regain the upper hand, nearly a year after Russia invaded Ukraine. . Western military experts and officials say they also believe Ukraine will try to launch an offensive of its own to push Russia away from occupied areas in the east.
“It’s no secret that they are preparing for a new wave on February 24,” Oleksiy Danilov, head of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council, told Radio Liberty on Friday, referring to to the Russian forces and what the first celebration will be. their full-scale invasion. Moscow’s immediate goal, he said, is to capture the entire Donetsk and Luhansk regions, and then “totally go beyond the borders of the regions”.
Russian President Vladimir V. Putin this month abruptly replaced the top commander of the Russian war effort with General Valery V. Gerasimov, who US officials believe has secured the top spot. by vowing to attackwith the initial goal of quickly capturing land in the east.
The focus of fighting in eastern Ukraine since the summer has largely revolved around the city of Bakhmut, which carries a symbolic significance that military analysts say goes beyond its strategic importance.
But in recent days, Russian forces have stepped up attacks on the town of Vuhledar, just over 90 miles south of Bakhmut. It sits at intersection of the eastern front in the Donetsk region and the southern front in the Zaporizhzhia . regiona favorable position for the resupply of Russian forces moving between the two fronts.
Military analysts say that Ukrainian forces used their positions in and around Vuhledar to launch attacks on the region’s main railway hub in the occupied town of Volnovakha, a few miles away. less than 16 kilometers away, threatening Russia’s resupply efforts. Trains are essential to moving heavy equipment and large armies across the battlefield, so the more Ukrainian forces can cut off the routes running from Russia to southern Ukraine, the more they have could isolate Russian forces in the region.
In that context, repelling Ukrainian troops from Vuhledar will help Russia ensure the safety of railway lines. It “ensures Russia a steady supply of supplies to the southern part of the occupied territories,” according to an analysis released Saturday by the Conflict Intelligence Group, an independent group that analyzes intelligence open source intelligence.
Denis Pushilin, the leader of the Moscow-appointed Donetsk region, said that the eventual capture of Vuhledar by Russian forces “solved many problems” and predicted that the town “could become a new, very important success.” for us,” according to Russian news reports on Friday.
Ukrainian officials have dismissed recent reports from authorized Kremlin officials and Russian military bloggers about advances in the region. Colonel Sergei Cherevaty, a spokesman for Ukraine’s eastern military command, reported heavy fighting around Vuhledar but on Saturday said Ukrainian forces had thwarted Russian attacks.
Neither Russia nor Ukraine’s claims can be independently verified. Britain’s Defense Intelligence Agency said on Friday that Russian military sources were probably “deliberately spreading disinformation to imply that Russian activity is maintaining momentum”.
In his overnight national address Friday, President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine called the intensity of fighting around Bakhmut and Vuhledar “extremely intense” and destructive.
“The occupiers are not just storming our positions – they are deliberately and methodically destroying the towns and villages around them,” he said.
The heavy civilian casualties from those attacks were evident Saturday morning in the village of Kostyantynivka, about 15 miles southwest of Bakhmut, where a Russian missile strike killed three people and injured 14 others.
In the courtyard of a residential area, the body of a man lies sprawled on the ground amid rubble and debris. His mother knelt beside him, sobbing and stroking his side. Another corpse was covered by a sheet, spread out near a wheelbarrow that the man may have pushed at the time of impact.
One woman, smoking on a balcony above the courtyard, cried and shouted to no one in private: “I hate you all.”
Marc Santora reports from Kiev, Ukraine, and Michael Schwirtz from Kostyantynivka.
