Ukrainian forces have left several strategically important positions near the city of Toretsk, the TASS agency reported, citing Russian authorities.
The eastern Ukrainian city of Toretsk in the Donetsk region is of important strategic value to the Ukrainian army.
„Near Toretsk, the Ukrainian army is also not in the best situation. Under pressure [from Russian forces], they had to abandon several extremely important positions in this section of the front,” said Igor Kimakovsky, a senior official in the unrecognized DPR. He specified that the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) have lost several dozen people near this settlement in recent days.
The situation on the frontline in eastern and southern Ukraine remains dire as Russian occupation forces take advantage of US hesitancy to provide $60 billion in military aid to Kiev. While Ukrainian forces stopped the Russian offensive in the Kharkiv region, the situation in Donbass remains very difficult for them. Experts point out that this was exactly the main goal of Vladimir Putin with the offensive towards Kharkiv - to make Ukraine move its troops from other hot spots on the front.
Military expert Serhiy Grabsky warns that the loss of the town of Toretsk, south of Chasov Yar, could have very dangerous consequences for Ukrainian forces. The occupation army of the Russian Federation is now actively increasing the speed of its advance in the Donetsk region, in particular, the Russians have increased the number of attacks in the direction of Toretsk. They want to surround the Ukrainian military in the city, warns the expert quoted by the UNIAN agency.
At the beginning of May, the Russian army opened a new front in Ukraine – in Kharkiv region. According to experts, Putin did this to divert Ukrainian troops from the Donbass to the northeastern part of the country. Ukrainian units are already facing the problem that the front line is lengthening and the number of soldiers is decreasing - which means that individual positions are being thinned out. Everything depends on how many soldiers Ukraine will mobilize and what Western weapons it will receive as soon as possible.
Ukraine's military said earlier that Kiev's forces had pushed Russian troops out of an area in the town of Chasov Yar on the eastern fighting front, which is seen as Moscow's next target in its slow advance in the region, Reuters reported. According to a Russian report, however, Moscow's forces destroyed a communications tower near the city and made further progress. Russian forces are slowly making their way through parts of eastern Ukraine, capturing several villages after seizing the key town of Avdeyevka in February. Chasov Yar is located at an altitude of 20 km west of Bakhmut, a town that Russian forces captured a year ago after months of fighting. Both sides see the city as a potential launching point for a Russian advance on key cities in eastern Donetsk Oblast, including Kramatorsk and Slavyansk.