Russian and Ukrainian forces engaged in fierce fighting near the key town of Chassiv Yar (east) on Sunday, the day after the adoption by the American House of Representatives of new military aid to kyiv, which claimed for its part to have struck a Russian ship in Crimea. The Russian Defense Ministry said at midday on Sunday that the town of Bogdanivka (east) had been “completely liberated”. But at the end of the day, the Ukrainian forces declared that they had “repulsed” the Russian army which “with the support of the aviation, tried to improve its tactical situation”.
Information to remember:
- Fierce fighting occurred between Russians and Ukrainians in Chasiv Yar, eastern Ukraine
- kyiv says it attacked a Russian military ship in the Black Sea
A small town of less than 100 inhabitants before the war in Ukraine, Bogdanivka is located less than 10 km from Chassiv Iar, a target town for the Russian army. Because Chassiv Iar itself is less than 30 km southeast of Kramatorsk, the main city still under Ukrainian control in the Donetsk region and an important rail and logistics hub for the Ukrainian army.
Military and economic aid of $61 billion to Ukraine
These fights come the day after the vote in Washington by the House of Representatives in favor of military and economic aid of nearly 61 billion dollars to kyiv. The bill still needs to be passed by the Senate and approved by US President Joe Biden, and only then can the long transport of aid to Ukraine begin.
This means that this aid “will not begin to affect the situation on the front line for several weeks,” the American Institute for the Study of War warned in its latest bulletin. The Kremlin has even already warned that it would change “nothing” on the front. Hence the eagerness of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky: “It is very important for us to have a quick decision from the Senate in favor of the Ukrainian package,” he declared on Sunday on social networks.
Residents of kyiv interviewed by AFP on Sunday were nevertheless delighted with the vote in Washington. “It’s finally here! It will help a lot,” reacted Oksana, a 50-year-old nurse: “It will save our lives.” Stepan, a 61-year-old Ukrainian rail employee, hoped for “immediate” deliveries of shells and ammunition, “because the guys are suffering at the front.”
Ukraine claims to have attacked the Russian ship “Kommouna”
The Ukrainian forces there lack ammunition, in addition to having difficulty recruiting new volunteers, after more than two years of a war which has exhausted the troops. “We are catastrophically lacking in ammunition,” a Ukrainian soldier, Dmytro, even testified to AFP in the Kharkiv region (north-east): “if we are helped, everything will be better.”
In this difficult context, Ukraine claimed on Sunday to have attacked a Russian military ship in the Black Sea, where its forces have had more success so far. The Kommouna, responsible for rescues on the high seas (of sunken submarines or lost cargo) is one of the oldest Russian military ships, according to kyiv. Launched in 1915 and having participated in both world wars, it is even the oldest military ship still in service in the world, according to several military sites.
It is “no longer capable of carrying out its tasks,” said Ukrainian navy spokesman Dmytro Pletenchuk. “This will continue until the Russians no longer have ships or leave annexed Crimea,” he added.
The Russian-installed governor of Sevastopol, Mikhail Razvozhayev, told him earlier that the Russian army had “repelled a missile attack” against a ship he did not name, where a fire caused by falling ships debris “was quickly extinguished”. Ukrainian authorities also said that Russia also struck its territory on Sunday, killing at least one 82-year-old woman and wounding four in Ukrainsk in the Donetsk region.