dpa
Kiev
The Ukrainian military said on Saturday that it finds itself in a difficult situation in its defence against the Russian invasion.
“The situation on the eastern front has worsened significantly in recent days,” Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrskyi wrote on Telegram on Saturday.
He said that this was due to increased offensive efforts by Russian troops following the presidential election in Russia in March that handed Vladimir Putin another term.
The situation around the towns of Lyman, Bakhmut and Pokrovsk in the Donetsk region is particularly sensitive, Syrskyi said. In Pokrovsk in particular, to the west of the town of Avdiivka, which was only captured by the Russians at the beginning of the year, the Russian military is attempting to break through the defence lines using dozens of tanks.
Syrskyi called for the Ukrainian army to be armed with high-tech weapons such as drones. Only with technological innovations would it be possible to equalize the numerical superiority of the Russian attackers.
Kiev has been requesting greater support from the West for months. Due to the lack of ammunition and weapons, the Ukrainians are increasingly on the defensive.
Most recently, Ukrainian media reported that Russian troops had captured the village of Bohdanivka to the west of Bakhmut. Kiev has not officially acknowledged the loss of the village. Russian troops had advanced to the northern edge of the settlement and there was fierce fighting. However, Bohdanivka is under Ukrainian control, according to the General Staff in Kiev.
Mykhailo Podolyak, a senior adviser to the head of the Ukrainian President’s Office Andriy Yermak, also mentioned the acute problems in an interview with the British daily The Guardian.
The destruction of Ukrainian infrastructure caused by Russian drone and missile attacks is due to the fact that the air defence system is overloaded. He admitted that there was a major shortage of ammunition for Patriot and Iris-T systems in particular.
