Ukraine’s military said Thursday that its troops retreated from part of Chasiv Yar in the eastern Donetsk region, one day after Russia said its military had taken over a district in the key town.
“It became impractical to hold the canal neighborhood after the enemy entered it, because it threatened the lives and health of our servicemen and the positions of our defenders were destroyed,” military spokesperson Nazar Voloshyn told Ukrainian television.
“The command decided to pull back to more protected and prepared positions, but even there the enemy does not stop its active combat actions,” he added.
Chasiv Yar is on high ground, which means Russian forces could possibly use it as an assembly point to proceed toward other Ukrainian cities, if they manage to take full control of the town.
Russia’s recent attempts to open a new front near the city of Kharkiv in northeastern Ukraine have been stopped, but Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said delays in receiving U.S. military aid have contributed to the Ukrainian army’s struggles.
“We have 14 underequipped brigades that do not have appropriate weapons,” President Zelenskyy said in an interview with Bloomberg that was published on his social media on Thursday. “The packages should be coming, but they are coming slowly, unfortunately.”
Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday that Moscow would not declare a cease-fire in Ukraine until the Ukrainian government takes actions that are “irreversible” and deemed acceptable to the Kremlin.
Earlier Thursday, the Ukrainian military said it shot down 21 of 22 aerial drones Russia used in overnight attacks against areas across Ukraine.
The Ukrainian air force said the intercepts took place over the Chernihiv, Dnipropetrovsk, Kyiv, Poltava, Sumy and Zhytomyr regions.
Serhiy Lysak, the regional governor of Dnipropetrovsk, said on Telegram the drone attacks injured at least seven people while also damaging residential buildings, shops, a sports club and a gas pipeline.
The Wednesday missile attack on Ukraine’s Poltava region that damaged gas infrastructure killed one person and wounded three others, Ukraine’s energy ministry said Thursday.
Officials in Chernihiv said a Russian missile damaged the power grid.
A Russian missile strike in the southern Odesa region killed a woman, wounded seven other people and damaged port infrastructure, regional governor Oleh Kiper said on the platform Telegram.
Russia’s defense ministry said Thursday it thwarted Ukrainian drone attacks over the Belgorod, Bryansk and Tambov regions.
Belgorod Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said a drone injured three people.
Zelenskyy thanked the United States late Wednesday for its latest announcement of military aid for Ukraine.
“Additional air defense, artillery, anti-tank weapons, and other critical items, as well as funds to purchase Patriot and NASAMS missiles, will strengthen our warriors and improve our battlefield capabilities,” Zelenskyy said. “We count on continued U.S. assistance to strengthen Ukraine’s defense and enable us to effectively counter Russian aggression and protect our people against Russian terror.”
The Pentagon on Wednesday formally announced a two-part security assistance package for Ukraine, valued at just over $2.3 billion.
The initial aid includes missiles, rockets and artillery from U.S. stockpiles, valued at up to $150 million.
Some of the key capabilities include more missiles for Ukraine’s HAWK air defense systems and ammunition for its High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems, or HIMARS.
It will include artillery rounds and mortar rounds; Tube-Launched, Optically Tracked, Wire-Guided (TOW) missiles; and Javelin anti-armor systems.
The second part of the package, valued at about $2.2 billion, will be used to purchase missiles for Ukraine's Patriot missile defense systems and more National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile Systems (NASAMS). Those systems need to be assembled and will be delivered at a later date.
The formal announcement of the aid package comes a day after U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin hosted Ukrainian Defense Minister Rustem Umerov at the Pentagon.
“Ukraine is in a tough fight,” Austin told Umerov ahead of their meeting. “The Kremlin continues to intensify its bombardment of your cities and civilians.”
“Make no mistake,” Austin added. “Ukraine is not alone, and the United States will never waver in our support.”
The announcement of the new U.S. aid package comes a week before the U.S. hosts a NATO summit where more military support for Ukraine in the face of Russia’s ongoing invasion will top the agenda.
“The most important deliverable at the upcoming NATO summit is precisely what Secretary Austin was referencing, and that is hardware: artillery shells, air defense interceptors, other kinds of weaponry that the Ukrainians need to defend themselves,” said Charles Kupchan, senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations.
“If the NATO summit should showcase anything, it is the continued flow of assistance and the continued flow of assistance over the long run,” Kupchan told VOA. “Because I think the message here is that the Russians cannot wait out Ukraine and cannot wait out the West.”
VOA’s Kim Lewis contributed to this report. Some information for this story was provided by Reuters, Agence France-Presse and The Associated Press.
