This Sunday, July 21, the Russian army announced that it had taken control of two villages in eastern Ukraine, and seemed to be continuing its advance, square kilometer by square kilometer, on several sectors of the front, particularly in Donbass and in the eastern Kharkiv region. In recent weeks, announcements of this type have multiplied. What about the situation overall, particularly in Donbass? Is Ukraine losing control, or is it slowly retreating to more advantageous positions?
2 min
With our correspondent in kyiv, Stephane Siohan
The loss of this or that locality, day by day, is not a sufficient indicator to judge the balance of power between the army of theUkraine and that of the Russiain this case, it regularly happens that both sides withdraw from a village or hamlet so destroyed that the soldiers can no longer protect themselves from the enemy.
Nevertheless, it appears clear that the Russian army is making progress at the end of July 2024 in achieving its strategic objectives during the fighting carried out during the dry season: namely, regaining control of the territories retaken by the Ukrainian army in the fall of 2022 in the region of Kharkivparticularly to the east of the small strategic town of Kupiansk where the two villages reoccupied by Russia are located.
Russian war effort in the heart of Donbass
The Russian army is about to enter New York, a small town with the same name as the American metropolis. It is imposing fierce fighting around the mining city of Toretsk, and, more worrying for the Ukrainians, it is now only four kilometers from the national road that connects Pokrovsk to Konstantynivka, two of the last medium-sized cities controlled by kyiv in the Donbass.
The Russians’ aim was to cut the vital links between these last Ukrainian strongholds, then to approach them to put these towns, Pokrovsk, Konstantynivka and Kramatorsk, within cannon range.
But we are not there yet. In this war of attrition, the Ukrainians are resisting as best they can, agreeing to retreat from certain battlefields, after having bled the Russian army dry there. Until when? The question now is whether Ukraine can keep a foothold in the Donbass, before the arrival of the cold season.
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