Russia aiming to capture new critical target in weeks: Kyiv

Russian forces are hoping to capture the eastern settlement of Chasiv Yar in the next few weeks, Ukraine’s commander-in-chief has said, after he warned fighting in eastern Ukraine had “significantly worsened.”

The Russian military is working to capture Chasiv Yar by May 9, Ukraine’s army chief, Colonel General Oleksandr Syrskyi, said in a post to the Telegram messaging app on Sunday.

The town sits west of Bakhmut, which Russian forces captured in May 2023 after months of bitter and bloody fighting. Capturing Chasiv Yar would “enable Russia to attack into Ukraine’s belt of operationally significant fortress cities,” the U.S. think tank, the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) assessed on Saturday. Russia is currently on the eastern outskirts of Chasiv Yar, the institute said.

These “fortress cities” are largely west of the current front lines, snaking down from Sloviansk to Kramatorsk, then further south to Druzhkivka and Kostiantynivka.

Seizing Chasiv Yar could also help Russia cut off the settlement of Kostiantynivka, around 12 kilometers—or just over 7 miles— from the front line, which would compromise the “backbone of Ukraine’s defense” in the Donetsk region, the think tank said.

Newsweek has reached out to the Russian Defense Ministry for comment via email.

Russia’s bearing down on Ukrainian defenses along the eastern front comes as anxieties in Kyiv over the future of U.S. military aid—a critical pillar propping up Ukraine’s war effort—deepen. A package worth $60 billion has languished in Congress, ensnared by political infighting, just weeks ahead of a predicted Russian offensive getting underway as early as the end of May.

Ukrainian officials and Western analysts have said a lack of crucial resources, such as ammunition, have restrained Ukraine’s ability to fend off Russian operations.

Moscow is attempting to “break through our defenses west of Bakhmut,” take control of Chasiv Yar, and “create conditions for further advance” towards the Donetsk city of Kramatorsk, the army chief said. The city lies northwest of Chasiv Yar.

Syrskyi said Ukraine had bolstered its defenses, including electronic warfare systems, drone use and ammunition supplies along the eastern front.

Throughout more than 25 months of full-scale war, the eastern Donetsk region of Ukraine has remained a hotspot of clashes. The fall of Bakhmut last year and the capture of Avdiivka, a former Ukrainian stronghold, in February 2024, are Russia’s two largest victories in the past year, both of which are located in Donetsk.

Russia has upped its attacks on the eastern front that snakes through Donetsk in the past month, Syrskyi said on Saturday. The fighting along this section of the front line has “significantly worsened in recent days,” he added in a post to Telegram.

Russia is “actively attacking” close to the Donetsk town of Lyman, north of Bakhmut, and down the line to the southwest of Bakhmut, Syrskyi said. Towards the city of Pokrovsk, southwest of Bakhmut, Moscow is using “dozens” of tanks and infantry fighting vehicles to try to break through Ukraine’s defenses, the army chief added.

Russia appears to place “alternative emphasis” on its efforts around Lyman, Chasiv Yar and Pokrovsk, the ISW think tank said on Saturday. “Ukrainian forces have successfully defended against prior Russian operational-level offensive efforts of this sort when they had the resources the US is currently withholding,” the ISW added.

“Ukrainian forces currently struggle with significant shortages of both artillery shells and air defense means, both of which are critical components of their defense, and Russian forces are capitalizing on these shortages and improved weather conditions,” the think tank evaluated.

Syrskyi said on Saturday that Russian operations were helped along by “warm, dry weather, which has made most of the open areas of the terrain accessible to tanks.”