The Russian army took control on Tuesday of a village in eastern Ukraine very close to the town of Avdiivka which it recently conquered, against a backdrop of continuing its offensive in this area where it claimed several successes.
Russian soldiers “liberated” the village of Sieverné, the Russian ministry assured on Telegram.
A spokesperson for the Ukrainian army, Dmytro Lykhovy, confirmed for his part that Ukrainian troops had “withdrew from the small villages of Sieverné and Stepové”.
He claimed that “fierce fighting for Sieverné” continued into the evening and night, reporting “heavy losses” in the Russian ranks.
On Monday, Ukraine had already admitted to having withdrawn its soldiers from another village located a few kilometers away, Lastochkyné, “in order to organize defense”.
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“Nine counterattacks by assault groups of the Ukrainian army were repelled” near the towns of Niou-York, Pervomaiske and Petrivské, in the same region of Donetsk, the Russian army also said on Tuesday.
The Russian Defense Ministry also announced the destruction of an Abrams tank of Ukrainian forces in the sector, the first claim of this kind made by Moscow since the delivery of these heavy armored vehicles by Washington to Kiev.
“Violent fighting” near Chassiv Iar
At the same time, about a hundred kilometers to the east, “violent fighting” took place near the town of Chassiv Iar, a key town near Bakhmut.
An area in which the Russian army is “actively trying to advance,” the Ukrainian army said on Tuesday.
A possible capture of this almost deserted locality could allow Russian forces to step up their attacks against Kramatorsk, the last major city in Donbass controlled by kyiv and targeted more and more often by Russian bombings.
“The enemy is actively trying to advance in the direction of Chassiv Yar.
Particularly near Ivanivské and Bogdanivka, where violent fighting is taking place on the outskirts,” the army spokesperson in this area, Illia Ievlach, declared on television.
The Russian army is “sending reserves and trying to reinforce its troops with assault units,” he added.
The villages of Ivanivské and Bogdanivka are on the edge of the front line, approximately only 3 km southeast and northeast of Chasiv Yar, where the Ukrainian army retreated after the May 2023 fall of the town of Bakhmout, about ten kilometers to the east.
Lack of ammunition and weapons
After the loss of Bakhmut, at the end of one of the longest and bloodiest battles of this war, the Ukrainian army recaptured two localities on the southern flank of this city during its summer counter-offensive.
But the front then froze and the Russian army resumed its attacks to advance on the eastern front in recent weeks, taking advantage of the lack of ammunition and weapons from which Ukrainian soldiers suffer.
In recent days, Ukrainian officials, led by Volodymyr Zelensky, have called on Western allies to deliver more weapons, and more quickly.