kyiv, Ukraine (AP) — Russian forces have overrun two frontline villages in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, a Ukrainian army sergeant said Monday, after relentless attacks that are part of a summer crusade in the Kremlin to overwhelm battlefield defenses.
Separately, attacks in the Russian Kursk region through the Security Service of Ukraine, also known as SBU, affected several substations, causing power outages, according to a Ukrainian state primary general. Responsibility was claimed after Russia said it had thwarted a Ukrainian drone attack in the middle of the night.
“They insisted all the time” on capturing Vovche and Prohres, Sergeant Major of Ukraine’s 47th Independent Mechanized Brigade Oleh Chaus told Radio Svaboda. “They sent a huge amount of troops, which had been used before. “
The Russian Defense Ministry has claimed in recent days to have taken the villages, but the Ukrainian General Staff has made no official comment.
The villages are about 32 kilometers northwest of Avdiivka, in Donetsk, the city the Russian military captured in February after a long battle. The victory was the Kremlin’s last primary triumph in the war, which is now in its third year.
The Russian offensive, driven by its gigantic merit in terms of infantry and weaponry, has continually forced the Ukrainians to withdraw from their defensive positions to capture or kill.
Oleksandr Shyrshyn, deputy battalion commander of the 47th Brigade, showed the media that the villages had been taken. He blamed the setbacks on poor training of troops, poor officer ability, motivation and insufficient weapons.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Sunday afternoon described the situation in the Donetsk region as “extremely difficult”.
Russia’s attrition war strategy, with powerful bombs destroying Ukraine’s defenses before infantry intervenes, has brought additional benefits to the Kremlin in its quest for another breakthrough.
Obviously, Ukraine is outnumbered by the larger Russian army on a front line of about six hundred miles.
Russian troops are also stepping up their weeks-long crusade to break through Ukrainian defenses around Pokrovsk, a city of about 60,000 people before the war, Ukraine’s General Staff said Monday.