+34Russia has claimed to have breached two fortified Ukrainian defensive lines on the eastern front. Kyiv described conditions there as 'difficult'
Russia said on Wednesday it had broken through two fortified Ukrainian defence lines on the eastern front, with Kyiv describing conditions there as difficult and Western allies announcing more military aid including artillery rounds.
The Russian Defence Ministry said the Ukrainians had retreated in the face of Russian attacks in the Luhansk region, although it gave no details and Reuters was not able to independently verify this and other battlefield reports. "During the offensive ... the Ukrainian troops randomly retreated to a distance of up to 3 km from the previously occupied lines," the ministry said on the Telegram messaging app. "Even the more fortified second line of defence of the enemy could not hold the breakthrough of the Russian military."Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky's office said Kyiv's forces had repelled some Russian attacks in Luhansk but added:"The situation in the region remains difficult." Luhansk regional governor Serhiy Haidai said Russia was pouring heavy equipment and mobilised troops into Luhansk. "The attacks are coming from different directions in waves," Haidai said." those who spread the information that allegedly our defence forces have pulled back beyond the line of the administrative border - this does not correspond to reality." In Kyiv, the capital's military administration said six Russian balloons that may have contained reconnaissance equipment were shot down over the city on Wednesday after air raid sirens blared. "The purpose of launching the balloons was possibly to detect and exhaust our air defences," it said on the Telegram messaging app. Russia did not immediately comment.The Kremlin has intensified attacks across a swathe of southern and eastern Ukraine in recent weeks, and a major new offensive has been widely anticipated. Russia's main effort has been focused on the town of Bakhmut in Donetsk province adjacent to Luhansk. Serhiy Cherevatyi, spokesperson for Ukraine's eastern military command, told Ukrainian TV on Wednesday that fierce battles were being fought in Bakhmut. The Ukrainian military said its units had repelled Russian attacks in the areas of over 20 settlements including Vuhledar - a town 150 km southwest of Bakhmut. Bakhmut's capture would give Russia a stepping stone to advance on two bigger cities, Kramatorsk and Sloviansk in Donetsk, lending it momentum after months of setbacks ahead of the first anniversary of the invasion. President Zelensky said on Tuesday that Russia was in a hurry to achieve as much as it could with its latest push before Ukraine, armed with heavier and longer-range firepower from the West, gathers strength for what many expect to be a spring counter-offensive. Ukraine is using shells faster than the West can make them and says it needs fighter jets and long-range missiles to counter the Russian offensive and recapture lost territory.NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said alliance members were increasing production of 155mm artillery rounds and needed to ramp that up even further to help Ukraine. It was"obvious" NATO states had to spend more on defence, he added. "So yes, things are happening but we need to continue, we need to step up even more. This is now becoming a grinding war of attrition and is a war of logistics," he told reporters after a meeting of NATO defence ministers in Brussels. European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell urged countries to join Germany in sending"as many tanks as possible, and as quickly as possible" to Ukraine after media reports that Denmark and the Netherlands said they would not deliver Leopard2 battle tanks like Berlin. "It would be very disappointing if, after so long of pointing the finger at Germany for not doing anything, these countries now don't follow suit," Borrell told Germany's Phoenix broadcaster. "I know there are hundreds of tanks in EU armies, some of them need to be refurbished, but then you have to do it, and do it quickly, because in the spring it will be too late." US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said after the Brussels talks that Ukraine had a very good chance of taking and"exploiting" the initiative on the battlefield this year. Austin said that for every new system NATO provides Kyiv, it will train troops on it."We're laser-focused on making sure that we provide a capability and not just the platform." Britain said it and other European nations would provide military equipment including spare parts for tanks and artillery ammunition to Ukraine via an international fund, with an initial package worth more than $241 million. Russia holds swathes of Ukraine's southern regions of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia, including its nuclear plant, nearly all of Luhansk and over half of Donetsk. Last year, Russia declared it had annexed the four regions in a move condemned by most United Nations members as illegal. Russia also aims to retake the settlements in the northeastern Kharkiv region that it surrendered to Kyiv last year, the head of the Russian-installed administration there said on Wednesday.Russia has lost around half its best tanks in the year since it invaded Ukraine and is struggling to replace them, a leading research centre said on Wednesday.But Moscow has preserved its air force largely intact and may deploy it more actively in the next phase of the war, the International Institute for Strategic Studies said. In its annual Military Balance report, a key reference tool for defence experts, the IISS said loss rates for some of Russia's most modern classes of tank were as high as 50%, forcing it to rely on older Soviet-era models. "They're producing and reactivating nowhere near enough to compensate for those loss rates. Their current armoured fleet at the front is about half the size it was at the start of the war," Henry Boyd, research fellow at the IISS, told Reuters.Ukraine has secured promises of around 100 modern Western tanks, including the US Abrams, the German Leopard and the British Challenger, whose capabilities far exceed the older Russian models. "That may well then translate through to less aggressive and less confident tank actions as crews are more concerned about the threat level presented to them," Boyd said. IISS aerospace expert Douglas Barrie said Russia had preserved its air force mostly unscathed, operating at a distance because of effective Ukrainian air defences and an undersupply of tactical short-range air-to-surface missiles. But he said Russia may look to use air power more actively, and potentially take more risks to hit any concentrations of Ukrainian forces on the ground. Barrie said Western sanctions were hampering Russia's ability to replenish its stocks of guided weapons that rely on imported microprocessors. He also said the pace of development of Russia's latest generation of nuclear weapons was slow, despite President Vladimir Putin's boasts about Moscow's capabilities and his repeated veiled threats to resort to nuclear arms to defend what he regards as Russian territory.Germany on Wednesday said it has"half a battalion" of Leopard 2 tanks to send to Ukraine, as NATO allies appear to struggle to muster the heavy vehicles pledged to Kyiv. Berlin said late last month that it was aiming to send around 30 battle tanks to help Ukrainian forces fight Russia's invasion after pressure from Kyiv and its supporters to greenlight the supplies. But German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius said after a meeting of Ukraine's backers in Brussels that so far it had gathered only 14 newer A6 type Leopard tanks and three from Portugal.He added:"For the German Leopards, I want to say again that ours will be delivered in the last week of March. That is certain." Germany, Poland and Ukraine held talks with other NATO members on the sidelines of a meeting in Brussels on Tuesday to try to whip up more tanks for Kyiv.He said Berlin was against the Netherlands sending 14 Leopard 2 tanks as that would"weaken the operational readiness" of a joint German-Dutch brigade where they are used. Ukraine has pleaded with its Western backers to send modern battle tanks to help it push back a renewed Russian offensive and allow it to go on the attack itself. Poland has also committed to sending a battalion of Leopard 2 tanks to Kyiv and is currently training Ukrainian troops to use them.
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