Ukrainian troops retreat, Russian forces advance, as Kyiv awaits weapons infusion

Ukrainian servicemen fire a BM-21 Grad multiple launch rocket system towards Russian troops near a front line, amid Russia's war on its neighbor, in Ukraine's Donetsk region, April 24, 2024. [Reuters]

Ukrainian troops, outnumbered by Russian ground forces, are retreating from positions in eastern Ukraine as Russian troops advance westward, Ukrainian Colonel General Oleksandr Syrskyi said Sunday.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy also made fresh pleas to allies to send more Patriot air defense systems “as soon as possible.”

Syrskyi said that Kyiv's outnumbered troops had fallen back to new positions west of three villages on the eastern front where Russia has concentrated significant forces in several locations.

"The situation at the front has worsened," the top general wrote on the Telegram messaging app, saying the "most difficult" areas were west of occupied Maryinka and northwest of Avdiivka, a strategically important town captured by Russian forces in February.

Ukrainian forces face a worsening position in the east while awaiting delivery of U.S. weapons following the approval by Congress of a $61 billion aid package for Ukraine last week.

"We are still waiting for the supplies Ukraine was promised," Zelenskyy said in his nightly video address Sunday. "We are expecting those volumes and scope that can change the situation on the battlefield in Ukraine's interests,” he added.

Zelenskyy said he had just spoken with U.S. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and thanked Congress for passing the stalled aid package but pressed on the urgency for speedy deliveries that would allow Ukraine to maintain its positions and disrupt Russian war plans.

"In my conversation with Mr. Jeffries, I underscored that Patriot systems are needed, and as soon as possible," he added.

Ukraine’s eastern front lines in the Donetsk and Kharkiv regions have seen fierce clashes in recent weeks as Russian forces seek to grind out gains along the more than 1,000-kilometer front line. Additionally, shortages of ammunition and personnel have increasingly hamstrung Ukraine's defenses, according to the Institute for the Study of War, a Washington-based research group.

The institute, however, assessed that despite Russian advances, it is not likely that Kyiv's defensive lines will collapse.

A Ukrainian intelligence source told the Reuters news agency this week that Russia was conducting airstrikes on Ukrainian railways to disrupt the delivery of U.S. weapons to the front and to complicate military logistics.

In his post, Syrskyi expressed hope that once the U.S. starts suppling the weapons promised under the aid package signed into law by President Biden last week, the situation will stabilize on the battlefield.

Syrskyi also said that fresh Ukrainian brigades were replacing worn out units that had suffered losses in those areas.

Syrskyi, however, omitted information on the alleged capture of Novobakhmutivka, another village near Berdychi, as Russia's defense ministry claimed Sunday.

Online battlefield maps produced by open-source intelligence analysts suggest that Russians have advanced more than 15 kilometers on the village of Ocheretyne since capturing Avdiivka.

Farther north, the Kyiv-held town of Chasiv Yar is emerging as a key battleground because of its position on higher ground -- that if taken by Russian forces -- could serve as a gateway to the cities of Kostiantynivka, Sloviansk and Kramatorsk.

Syrskyi described Chasiv Yar and the village of Ivanivske to its northeast as the "hottest spots" on that part of the front while Russia's defense ministry said it had repelled Ukrainian counterattacks near Chasiv Yar.

Syrskyi also said his forces were closely monitoring an increase in the number of Russian troops in the area of Kharkiv, Ukraine's second largest city, located about 30 kilometers northwest of the Russian border.

Recently, he said, the city of 1.3 million has been pummeled by airstrikes, calling them a deliberate effort by Moscow to make Kharkiv uninhabitable.

A 36-year-old woman was pulled alive from the rubble after Russian shells destroyed her home Sunday morning in the northeastern Kharkiv region, the local administration reported. Her 52-year-old neighbor was also rushed to the hospital with a stomach wound, the administration said.

Overall, Russian shelling Saturday and overnight wounded at least seven civilians across Ukraine, according to Ukrainian officials.

Syrskyi said there were so signs that Russia was directly preparing for an offensive in the north of the country.

"In the most threatening directions, our troops have been reinforced by artillery and tank units," he said.

Meanwhile, Russian drones struck the Black Sea city of Mykolaiv early Sunday, setting a hotel on fire and damaging the area’s energy infrastructure, Vitaliy Kim, the local Ukrainian governor, reported on the Telegram messaging app. "The enemy attacked the city with an unmanned aerial vehicle of the 'Shahed-131/136' type," he said, adding there were no casualties.

The Russian side claimed that the strike on Mykolaiv targeted a shipyard where naval drones are assembled, as well as a hotel housing "English-speaking mercenaries" who have fought for Kyiv. Russian state agency RIA cited Sergei Lebedev, described as a coordinator of local pro-Moscow guerrillas.

Reuters said Lebedev’s claim could not be independently verified.

The Russian defense ministry said Sunday morning that 17 Ukrainian drones were downed overnight over four regions in the country’s southwest. Three drones were intercepted near an oil depot in Lyudinovo, an industrial town about 230 kilometers north of the Ukrainian border.

One of the Ukrainian drones damaged communications infrastructure in Russia's southern Belgorod province, Governor Vyachaslav Gladkov said Sunday. The province borders Ukraine.

There were no immediate reports of casualties.