Article Author:
Associated Press
Justin Spike
Sloviansk, Ukraine (AP) — Ukrainian military personnel are strengthening their positions around the eastern city of Sloviansk. A key point in the Donetsk region where fierce battles took place.
With intense ground fighting continuing on the front lines just a few miles east, southeast and north of Sloviansk, members of the Dnipro-1 Regiment were forced to leave after a week of relative calm. , is digging. The final Russian attack on the city took place on his 30th July.
After regular bombardments from April to July, the rest of Sloviansk's population was in a lull, although some personnel believed it was an overture. say there is a gender. to attack again.
"I don't think it will settle down for a while. Eventually, there will be an attack," Col. Yury Vereza, head of the Volunteer National Guard, told the Associated Press on Friday, adding that over the next few days.
Sloviansk is a large part of eastern Ukraine, where Russian forces and pro-Moscow separatists control about 60% of the territory. is seen as a strategic target in Moscow's ambitions to occupy all of Donetsk Oblast, a Russian-speaking region.
Donetsk and the neighboring province of Luhansk, together with industrial It constitutes the Donbass region of the zone. Separatists have claimed the region to be his two independent republics since 2014, and Russian President Vladimir Putin recognized their sovereignty before sending troops to Ukraine. rice field.
Occupying Sloviansk would increase the area under Russian control, but would also be a symbolic victory for Moscow. The city was first occupied by separatists when hostilities broke out between Russia and Ukraine in 2014, but was later returned to Ukrainian control.
In addition, the Russian military wants to take control of nearby water treatment plants to serve Russian-occupied cities such as Donetsk in the southeast and Mariupol in the south. His Major Artur Shevtsov of the Dnipro-1 Regiment said:
Russian forces will increasingly move men and equipment from Donbass into southern Ukraine, pushing back Ukrainian counterattacks around Ukraine, the War Research Institute, a Washington-based think tank, said Friday. said. The occupied port city of Kherson.
These attempts to secure Kherson were ``made at the expense of (Russian) efforts to capture Sloviansk … they seem to have abandoned''. Institute analyst said.
However, Colonel Bereza believes that the pause in Russian artillery fire was not due to Sloviansk being abandoned as a target, but rather to the muddy conditions in the area after recent rainy weather. He said he was.
"A few days and it's dry, and it's working," he said.
Sloviansk's remaining population is only about 20,000 from his 100,000 before the Russian invasion. The city has been without gas or water for months, and residents have to manually pump drinking water from public wells.
From positions on the outskirts of the city, soldiers of the Dnipro-1 Regiment expanded their network of trenches, digging bunkers against mortar attacks and phosphorus bombs.
At the outpost, sergeant. Major Shevtsov said the delivery of heavy weapons from Ukraine's Western allies, including multiple US-supplied rocket launchers, has kept some cities in Donbass, like Sloviansk, relatively safe since their delivery in June. said it helped.
But such weapons probably only bought time for the Ukrainian military, he said, adding that the lack of strikes last week "worries me". , the lull means the Russians are preparing to attack.
Another officer, Commander. Ihor Krylchatenko said he doubted the silence would be broken within days.
"August 7 or he was warned that an attack could take place on the 8," he said.
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https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine