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Russia advances slowly on Ukraine's eastern front, but pays a bloody price

2023-02-08T15:39:34.235Z


The Kremlin announced that the military operation is "successful" as hundreds of Russian soldiers die every day.


Kiev, Ukraine - As Russia slowly and bloodily progresses in its renewed bid to

seize more of eastern Ukraine

, it is sending more and more recruits and military supplies into battle, Ukrainian authorities say.

However, it is far from clear that Moscow can mobilize enough forces to sustain a prolonged offensive.

The Ukrainian military said on Tuesday that Russian forces were attacking in five different directions along the crescent-shaped front line in the east, relying on troop masses to try to overcome Ukrainian positions.

The tactic has allowed Russia to intrude in recent weeks and, according to US officials, slowly tighten the noose around the key Ukrainian-held city of Bakhmut.

But

the strategy has come at the cost of hundreds of soldiers killed and wounded every day

.

"The main threat is the number," Serhiy Haidai, the Ukrainian governor of the eastern Luhansk region, told Ukrainian television on Tuesday.

"It is a huge monster that is at war with us

, and it has immense resources - not infinite, but still - there are too many."

Tanks in a village near the front lines in eastern Ukraine.

(The New York Times)

Haida had previously said that a "large-scale offensive" could begin after February 15, as the Kremlin struggles to show progress around the one-year mark of its invasion.

Amid reports that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky would visit Brussels on Thursday to meet European Union leaders at a long-planned summit, Ukraine's military intelligence agency repeated a warning that

Moscow planned to mobilize up to half a million more soldiers to maintain his campaign

.

That would be "on top of the 300,000 mobilized in October 2022," Vadym Skibitsky, Ukraine's deputy intelligence chief, wrote in a lengthy statement released Monday night assessing the state of the war.

But Western intelligence services are wondering if Russian President Vladimir Putin could quickly get hundreds of thousands more troops without provoking a more violent internal reaction.

The Kremlin is already struggling to train and arm the soldiers it has, military analysts have said.

Britain's defense intelligence agency said on Tuesday that Russia had been trying to launch "major offensive operations" since early last month, with the aim of capturing the rest of the Donetsk region, which includes Bakhmut.

But

it had "only managed to gain several hundred meters of territory per week

," partly due to a lack of ammunition, the agency said in its latest daily assessment of the war.

But that hasn't stopped Ukraine from sounding the alarm about a massive Russian campaign to come, while agitating for more powerful weapons from the West.

He first predicted that Russia would mobilize 500,000 new troops in January, a move that has not materialized.

As they have done in the past, Ukrainian forces could respond to a Russian offensive with a counteroffensive, but some military analysts have suggested that Ukraine would be better off adopting a strong defensive position that would ultimately weaken Russian forces.

The Kremlin kept insisting that it was making progress in eastern Ukraine.

Russian Defense Minister Sergei K. Shoigu told reporters that combat operations near Bakhmut and the southern city of Vuhledar "are proceeding successfully," the official Tass news agency reported.

Although Moscow's willingness to sacrifice large numbers of troops for marginal gains has been demonstrated time and again throughout the war, Putin has been reluctant to publicly announce a second wave of mobilizations.

The announcement of a partial mobilization in Russia in September led hundreds of thousands of men of fighting age to flee the country.

Moscow's latest offensive on the Eastern Front has relied on new inexperienced recruits and former convicts pouring into Ukrainian positions, testing Ukrainian forces, but also inflicting heavy casualties.

A Russian opposition publication, Mediazona, has claimed that

there are fewer and fewer Russian prisoners willing to enlist for combat

due to reports of high casualties among penal colony recruits.

Haidai said on Tuesday that Ukrainian officials had observed Russian commanders keeping recently arrived units of newly mobilized soldiers separated from each other.

The reason, he said, was to prevent word of the casualties in the Russian ranks from getting out.

"They have a large number of dead and wounded, and the commanders are trying to avoid panic among the fighters in this way," Haidai said.

Mourners mourn at the funeral of Eduard Strauss, a Ukrainian soldier who was killed in fighting near Bakhmut, Ukraine.

(Emile Ducke/The New York Times)

Ukraine's western allies have been quick to provide tanks, armored vehicles and long-range weapons

to bolster Ukraine's defenses.

On Tuesday, Germany, Denmark and the Netherlands announced a plan to send some 100 Leopard 1 tanks to Ukraine, some of which could arrive "within a few months" - a much shorter timeframe than more advanced tanks that have promised Ukraine's western allies.

Zelensky's visit to Brussels on Thursday, if it takes place, would likely be aimed at bolstering political support as the European Union grapples with the economic consequences of the war and the cost of hosting more than 4 million Ukrainian refugees.

It would follow up on a visit by senior EU leaders to kyiv, the Ukrainian capital, last week.

As part of his visit to Brussels,

Zelensky is likely to address the European Parliament

on Thursday, according to an email sent by the Parliament's secretary-general to European lawmakers and reviewed by The New York Times.

The possible presence of the Ukrainian president, who depends on security measures, had already been announced by The Financial Times.

Charles Michel, president of the European Council of leaders of the member countries, invited Zelensky to participate in person in "a future summit".

The invitation was announced in a Twitter message by a spokesperson for Michel and did not specify any details of the invitation or its schedule.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba told state news Monday night that his ministry was working on a series of possible visits by Zelensky, "but when and where they will take place, you will find out from the president himself and from his office," according to the Ukrinform news agency.

A visit this week, if it comes,

would be the Ukrainian leader's second known trip outside his country since Russia invaded

almost a year ago.

In December, Zelensky visited Washington to meet with President Joe Biden and deliver an emotional address to Congress.

Last month, Ukraine received more substantial military aid from the United States, as well as the promise of Abrams tanks.

c.2023 The New York Times Company

Source: clarin

All news articles on 2023-02-08

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