KYIV, Ukraine (AP) 鈥 Ukraine's military chief on Saturday warned that the battlefield situation in the industrial east has 鈥渟ignificantly worsened in recent days,鈥 as warming weather allowed Russian forces to launch a fresh push along several stretches of the more 1,000 km-long (620-mile) front line.
In an update on the Telegram messaging app, Gen. Oleksandr Syrskyy said that Moscow had 鈥渟ignificantly鈥 ramped up its assaults since President Vladimir Putin extended his nearly quarter-century rule in a last month that saw anti-war candidates barred from the ballot and independent voices silenced in a Kremlin-backed media blockade.
According to Syrskyy, Russian forces have been 鈥渁ctively attacking鈥 Ukrainian positions in three areas of the eastern Donetsk region, near the cities of Lyman, Bakhmut and Pokrovsk, and beginning to launch tank assaults as drier, warmer spring weather has made it easier for heavy vehicles to move across previously muddy terrain.
鈥淒espite significant losses, the enemy is intensifying its efforts by using new units (equipped with) armored vehicles, thanks to which it periodically achieves tactical success,鈥 Syrskyy said.
A Russian Defense Ministry spokesman on Saturday confirmed the capture of a village that had been the site of fierce fighting for close to eighteen months. Analysts from Ukraine鈥檚 non-governmental Deep State group, which tracks frontline developments, had reported on Russia鈥檚 takeover of Pervomaiske, some 45 kilometers (28 miles) southeast of Pokrovsk, in the early hours of Thursday.
On Saturday, the group said in a Telegram update that Moscow鈥檚 forces had also taken Bohdanivka, another eastern village close to the city of Bakhmut, where the war鈥檚 bloodiest battle raged for nine months until it last May. Ukraine鈥檚 Defense Ministry shortly afterwards denied that Bohdanivka had been captured, and said 鈥渋ntense fighting鈥 continued there.
With the war in Ukraine entering its third year and a vital U.S. aid package for Kyiv , Russian troops are ramping up on the front line to prepare to grab more land this spring and summer.
Russia has relied on its edge in firepower and personnel to step up attacks across eastern Ukraine. It has increasingly used satellite-guided gliding bombs 鈥 which allow planes to drop them from a safe distance 鈥 to pummel Ukrainian forces beset by a and ammunition.
Also on Saturday, Germany announced that it will deliver an additional Patriot air defense system to Ukraine, days after Russian missiles and drones on Thursday struck infrastructure and power facilities across several regions, leaving hundreds of thousands of homes without power, in what private energy operator DTEK described as one of the most powerful attacks this year. The German Defense Ministry said it would 鈥渂egin the handover鈥 of the Patriot system immediately, without providing a precise timeline.
In an update on X, formerly known as Twitter, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said he had discussed the 鈥渕assive鈥 Russian air attacks on civilian energy infrastructure with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Saturday, and declared that Berlin will 鈥渟tand unbreakably by Ukraine鈥檚 side.鈥
Putin described the strikes as retribution for , after a slew of Ukrainian drone strikes over the past few months hit oil refineries deep inside Russia.
Starting last month, Moscow renewed its assault on Ukrainian energy facilities. On Thursday it completely knocked out a plant that was the biggest energy supplier for the region around Kyiv, as well as the nearby Cherkasy and Zhytomyr provinces.
At least 10 of the strikes in Kharkiv, Ukraine鈥檚 second-largest city. Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said more than 200,000 people in the region were without power and Russia 鈥渋s trying to destroy Kharkiv鈥檚 infrastructure and leave the city in darkness.鈥
Energy facilities were also hit in the Zaporizhzhia and Lviv regions.
The volume and accuracy of recent attacks have alarmed the country鈥檚 defenders, who say Kremlin forces now have better intelligence and fresh tactics in their campaign to annihilate Ukraine鈥檚 electrical grid and bring its economy to a halt.
In the winter of 2022-2023, Russia in an effort to deny civilians light and heating and chip away at the country鈥檚 appetite for war.
In Ukraine's Russian-occupied south, a local Kremlin-installed official blamed Kyiv for a shelling attack that killed 10 people, including children, in a town in the southern Zaporizhzhia region the previous day.
The Tokmak municipal administration reported on Telegram that the shelling struck three apartment blocks Friday evening. Five people were pulled alive from the rubble and 13 people were hospitalized, according to the Kremlin-installed regional head Yevhen Balitsky. It was not immediately possible to verify his claims.
Ukrainian officials did not immediately acknowledge or comment on the .
Meanwhile, in Ukraine, a Russian drone on Saturday dropped explosives on an ambulance that had been called out to a village near the frontline city of Kupiansk, wounding its 58-year-old driver, local Gov. Oleh Syniehubov reported. His claim could not be independently verified.
