Latest news with #EasternUkraine
Reuters
2 hours ago
- Politics
- Reuters
Russia says it captured Ukrainian town of Chasiv Yar after 16-month battle
MOSCOW, July 31 (Reuters) - Russia said on Thursday it had captured the town of Chasiv Yar in eastern Ukraine after nearly 16 months of fighting. The advance, if confirmed, would mark a significant gain for Moscow's forces and could enable them to press on towards key "fortress" cities in the Donetsk region, including Kostiantynivka, Sloviansk and Kramatorsk. Ukraine's general staff on Thursday morning said Russian forces had attacked locations near Chasiv Yar. DeepState, a Ukrainian open-source mapping site that charts the front lines, showed Ukraine's forces controlling the western part of the town. The battle for Chasiv Yar began in April last year, when Russian paratroopers reached its eastern edge. Russian state media reported then that Russian soldiers had begun phoning their Ukrainian counterparts inside the town to demand they surrender or be wiped out by aerial guided bombs. The town, now in ruins, had a pre-war population of more than 12,000 and its economy was based around a factory that produced reinforced concrete products and clay used in bricks. It lies just west of Bakhmut, which Russia captured in 2023 after one of the bloodiest battles of the war.
Wall Street Journal
5 hours ago
- Politics
- Wall Street Journal
Inside Ukraine's Effort to Fortify Hundreds of Miles of Defensive Lines
KRAMATORSK, Ukraine—A line of antitank ditches and barbed wire cuts through the sunflower fields all the way to the horizon here in Ukraine's battle-scarred east, fortifications the country bets it can lay fast and far enough to halt Russia's summer offensive. But the defensive gamble is facing increasingly long odds. Kyiv is in the midst of its most ambitious defensive construction effort to date, erecting obstacles and carving up the earth to thwart manned and unmanned assaults. While riflemen scan the sky for enemy robots, Ukraine's own drone operators sit below them in an extensive network of subterranean dugouts.
Al Jazeera
7 days ago
- Al Jazeera
Dozens injured, including children, in Russian attack on Kharkiv
Dozens injured, including children, in Russian attack on Kharkiv NewsFeed Video shows extensive damage to a residential area of Kharkiv after the latest Russian strike on the eastern Ukrainian city. Officials say at least 37 people were injured, including a 28-day-old baby. The attack comes a day after the latest fruitless round of talks between the two sides. Video Duration 00 minutes 26 seconds 00:26 Video Duration 01 minutes 25 seconds 01:25 Video Duration 01 minutes 48 seconds 01:48 Video Duration 01 minutes 10 seconds 01:10 Video Duration 00 minutes 42 seconds 00:42 Video Duration 01 minutes 30 seconds 01:30 Video Duration 01 minutes 31 seconds 01:31
Reuters
23-07-2025
- Politics
- Reuters
Pokrovsk: why is Russia trying so hard to capture strategic city in Ukraine?
MOSCOW/KYIV, July 23 (Reuters) - Russian forces are pushing hard to encircle the strategically important eastern Ukrainian city of Pokrovsk after capturing a string of villages to its south and east, and over 100,000 soldiers are trying to advance in the area, Kyiv says. Following are key facts about Pokrovsk, which Russians call by its Soviet-era name of Krasnoarmeysk, and the long battle for its control which began in earnest last summer. Pokrovsk is a road and rail hub in Ukraine's eastern Donetsk region which had a pre-war population of some 60,000 people. Most people have now fled, all children have been evacuated and, according to Serhii Dobriak, the head of the city's military administration, less than 1,500 residents remain. It lies on a key road which has been used by the Ukrainian military to supply other embattled eastern outposts, including the towns of Chasiv Yar, which has long been consumed by fierce fighting, and Kostiantynivka in the Donetsk region. Ukraine's only mine that produces coking coal - used in its once vast steel industry - is around six miles (10 km) west of Pokrovsk. Ukrainian steelmaker Metinvest said in mid-January it had suspended the mine's operations. Since 2014, Pokrovsk has been the site of a major technical university, the largest and oldest such institution in the wider region. The university, now abandoned, has been damaged by shelling. Moscow says it has annexed Ukraine's eastern Donetsk region and controls over 70% of the area's territory. Kyiv and most Western countries reject Russia's seizure of the territory as an illegal land grab. Capturing Pokrovsk, dubbed "the gateway to Donetsk" by Russian media, and Kostiantynivka to its northeast which Russian forces are also trying to envelop, would give Moscow a platform to drive north towards the two biggest remaining Ukrainian-controlled cities in Donetsk - Kramatorsk and Sloviansk. Control of Pokrovsk would allow Moscow to further disrupt Ukrainian supply lines along the eastern front and boost its long-running campaign to capture Chasiv Yar, which sits on higher ground offering potential control of a wider area. Its capture would also give Russia more options to attack Ukraine's Dnipropetrovsk region to the west, which is not one of the areas which Moscow has claimed but where it says it has already established a small foothold. Ukraine's top military commander, Oleksandr Syrskyi - who said in May that Ukraine had stalled the long grinding Russian offensive on Pokrovsk and even pushed back in some areas - said on Friday that his forces were standing firm. Ukrainian officials say Russia has relentlessly pounded their forces with artillery, glide bombs, and drones and sent in small groups of fighters to try to gain ground rather than commit large groups of infantry or armoured vehicles. Russia has 111,000 soldiers in the Pokrovsk area, Syrskyi has estimated. President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has made various senior personnel changes in the army during the city's defence. Ukraine says Moscow has sustained huge losses after throwing everything it has at trying to break through. Moscow says Ukrainian forces are taking serious losses. Neither side discloses full casualty figures. Ukrainian authorities have worked hard to try to persuade the city's remaining and mostly elderly and sick residents to evacuate. Dobriak, the head of the military administration, said on Monday that evacuation vehicles could no longer reach many areas and that people had to leave on foot. He said it was increasingly hard to deliver food and that food stores would have to close in the coming days. One of the main roads in, which Ukrainian forces call "the road of life," is covered by anti-drone nets to try to protect vehicles from Russian drone strikes. Even though the blue and yellow Ukrainian flag is still flying in Pokrovsk, the city is a shadow of its former self, with no electricity, gas, heating or piped water. Reuters footage published on May 21 showed the facades of apartment blocks badly damaged, deserted streets strewn with debris, and a few elderly residents and people on bicycles. Shellfire was audible and the roads were pockmarked with shell impacts and the wreckage of vehicles.
Al Mayadeen
15-07-2025
- Politics
- Al Mayadeen
Ukrainian forces struggle to hold eastern frontlines: NYT
Ukrainian troops are struggling to hold the city of Kostyantynivka amid Russian drone attacks, as it becomes the focal point in the latest phase of Russia's summer offensive in eastern Donetsk Republic, The New York Times has reported. The city, now partially encircled, is a critical gateway to Ukraine's last major line of defense in Donetsk. Its fall would expose northern cities to Russian drones and move Moscow closer to capturing the entire region. One injured Ukrainian soldier was left stranded in the forest at night after his unit informed him they couldn't evacuate him, as the road back to their base had turned into a death trap. Details of the May operation, shared by soldier Chaosov, an officer from the 93rd Mechanized Brigade, and confirmed by drone footage obtained by NYT, highlight the dire conditions Ukrainian troops are facing. Russia has now captured over two-thirds of Donetsk, but to seize the rest, it must take the remaining Ukrainian-held urban centers crucial for military logistics. Kostyantynivka stands as the southern gateway to a string of cities forming Ukraine's last major defense belt in the region. Russian forces have established a 16-kilometer-deep (10-mile) pocket around the Ukrainian forces, partially surrounding them from the east, south, and west. According to six Ukrainian soldiers and officers in the area, nearly every movement inside this pocket is tracked and targeted by Russian drones 24/7. Troops often remain trapped for weeks without rotation or medical evacuation. 'It's extremely difficult to deliver supplies, to rotate troops — to do anything, really,' said "Makas," an officer in Ukraine's 12th Azov Brigade. With the looming threat of a full-scale Russian attack on Kostyantynivka, Ukraine braces for what could be a prolonged and bloody battle. Soldiers speculate whether Russia will launch a direct offensive, as it did in Bakhmut in 2023, or encircle the city using a pincer strategy, echoing the tactics employed in the capture of Avdiivka. In either case, Ukrainian troops warn that Russia's enhanced drone warfare capabilities are giving Moscow an edge not seen in previous battles.
