Ukraine army chief says Russia making gains in east
By Thomas Mackintosh
The head of Ukraine’s military has warned the battlefield situation in the east of the country has “significantly worsened” in recent days.
Fierce battles are ongoing in a several villages in the eastern Donbas region.
Gen Oleksandr Syrskyi said Russia was benefitting from warm weather – making terrain more accessible to its tanks – and making tactical gains.
It comes as Germany said it will give Ukraine an extra Patriot missile defence system to fend off air attacks.
In his update posted to social media on Saturday, Gen Syrskyi explained the situation on the eastern front had deteriorated as Russia intensified its armoured assaults.
Battles have raged for control of Bohdanivka – a village west of the devastated city of Bakhmut, he said.
The settlement lies a few kilometres northeast of the town of Chasiv Yar, a Kyiv-controlled stronghold which Russia has been trying to reach after seizing the town of Avdiivka in February to the south.
Ukrainian officials say a slowdown in military assistance from the West – especially the US – has left it more exposed to aerial attacks and heavily outgunned on the battlefield.
