The new commander of the Ukrainian armed forces, General Oleksandr Sirski, acknowledged on Wednesday after a visit to the front that the situation is
"extremely complex"
and that Ukraine lacks men and weapons to confront the Russian invasion.
These difficulties could be exacerbated if
the new US aid package,
crucial to Kiev's arsenal, remains blocked by divisions between Democrats and Republicans.
"Russian occupiers continue to increase their efforts and outnumber"
Ukrainian forces, General Sirski said on Telegram.
"The operational situation is extremely complex and stressful," he added.
"We are doing everything possible to prevent the enemy from advancing on our territory and to maintain our positions," the new commander in chief stressed, acknowledging that his forces are suffering to contain the multiple Russian assaults in the east.
The new commander of the Ukrainian forces, Oleksandr Sirski.
Photo EFE
The Ukrainian government, however, continues to make the Russian fleet suffer in the Black Sea, like this Wednesday,
when it announced the destruction of another warship.
On the land front, the objective of recovering almost 20% of the territory of Ukraine occupied by Russian forces
still seems very far away.
Syrsky, long the commander of Kiev's military operations in the east, was promoted to army chief last week and President Volodymyr Zelensky
demanded "changes" from him
following the failure of the Ukrainian counteroffensive in mid-2023.
On his first visit to the front as commander in chief, the general was accompanied by the Minister of Defense, Rustem Umerov, and passed through the cities of Avdiivka and Kupiansk, two of the hot spots.
"We are taking all possible measures to minimize our losses,"
he said.
Since October, Russian forces have been carrying out massive attacks and bombings to capture Avdiivka, a largely destroyed industrial city.
The position of Ukrainian defenders has deteriorated since January
and the city's mayor, Vitaly Barabach, recently spoke of a "critical" situation in some neighborhoods.
Ukrainian rescuers work at the scene of a rocket attack on a residential building in Kharkov, northeastern Ukraine.
Photo EFE
On the other hand, in the Black Sea, where Ukraine managed to push back the powerful Russian fleet in 2023 with the help of missiles and drones, kyiv announced on Wednesday the destruction of another enemy ship.
"The Ukrainian armed forces, with military intelligence units,
destroyed a large landing ship, the 'Cesar Kunikov,'"
the Army General Staff declared on its Telegram channel.
Ukraine's military intelligence department (GUR) explained that it had used Magura V5 naval drones to destroy the ship off the city of Alupka, on the Black Sea coast,
causing "critical holes"
that led to its sinking.
According to the Ukrainian military, since the war began two years ago,
24 ships and one submarine have been "disabled"
, which would represent a third of Russian ships in the Black Sea.
Russia rarely acknowledges its losses and on Wednesday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov declined to comment on the Ukrainian claims.
In parallel, the Russian army
continues its attacks against Ukrainian cities near the front in the east.
Early Wednesday morning, a mother along with her nine-year-old son, as well as a 38-year-old pregnant woman, died in a bombing that hit a hospital in the city of Selidove (east), according to Ukrainian authorities.
A few hours later, another Russian attack killed two women, aged 62 and 74, in the village of Mikolaivka, 80 kilometers northeast, in the same Donetsk region, according to the regional governor.
Source: AFP
P.B.