Ukraine’s top general admits ‘tactical’ retreat underway

Aleksandr Syrsky has acknowledged battlefield setbacks after Moscow seized the initiative.

Ukrainian military units have pulled back from three villages in Russia’s Donetsk People’s Republic as Moscow’s forces continue to push westward from the regions’ capital city, Kiev’s top general has conceded.

Ukrainian troops retreated from the villages of Berdychi and Semyonovka, to the northwest of Avdeevka, and from Novomikhailovka, to the southwest of Donetsk, commander-in-chief General Aleksandr Syrsky said on Sunday in a Telegram post. The outnumbered Ukrainians gave ground to preserve “the lives and health of our defenders,” he added.

“The most difficult situation is in the Pokrovsk and Kurakhovo directions, where fierce battles continue,” Syrsky said. “The enemy has engaged up to four brigades in these directions, and is trying to develop an offensive west of Avdeevka and Maryinka.”

After capturing the Ukrainian stronghold of Avdeevka in February, Russian units have made steady battlefield gains. They are now firmly in control of the battlefield situation and are steadily pushing back Ukrainian forces, Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu said last Monday. According to Moscow, Kiev’s forces have lost more than 8,000 soldiers in just the past week.

In recent days, Russian troops also liberated the town of Bogdanovka, located near the strategic town of Chasov Yar in the north of the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR). Chasov Yar sits on high ground, and taking it would give Russian units a strong vantage point from which to attack other key areas held by the Ukrainians.

The Ukrainian general acknowledged on Sunday that Russian forces are attacking along “the entire front line,” spanning more than 1,000 kilometers (620 miles). On Friday he told his country’s Western backers that Kiev’s forces face a “difficult operational and strategic situation, which has a tendency to get worse.”

The administration of US President Joe Biden blamed Ukraine’s battlefield setbacks, including the fall of Avdeevka, on opposition from Republican lawmakers whose reluctance to further fund war without political concession he dismissed as “inaction” led to crippling ammunition shortages. Biden vowed to rush more aid to Kiev after Congress approved $61 billion in additional funding last week.

However, Moscow said that no Western weapons can change the dynamics on the front lines. Some US officials told Politico that the White House is also not convinced that the latest American assistance will be enough for Ukraine to prevail in the conflict with Russia.