Front line situation ‘extremely difficult’ as Ukraine waits on aid
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Ukraine’s new army chief said on Wednesday, February 14, that the situation on the front line with Russia was “extremely difficult” as delays to much-needed US military aid cast a shadow over the war effort.
The 1,000-kilometer front line has barely moved in more than a year, with Kyiv’s forces back on the defensive after last year’s failed counter-offensive and military leaders recognizing Russia has a manpower advantage.
The warning came as Kyiv said it had destroyed another Russian warship in the Black Sea. It was the latest in a string of successful attacks on Russia’s naval fleet and NATO praised it as a “great victory for Ukrainians.”
Yet on his first visit to the frontline in eastern Ukraine since becoming Ukraine’s new commander-in-chief, Oleksandr Syrsky painted a bleaker picture. “The operational environment is extremely complex and stressful,” said Syrsky, who replaced the popular Valery Zaluzhny last week in a major military shake-up. “The Russian occupiers continue to increase their efforts and have a numerical advantage in personnel.”
Along with Defense Minister Rustem Umerov, Syrsky had visited troops fighting around the key flashpoint of Avdiivka. Russia is mounting a major attempt to capture the city and has it surrounded on three sides. Ukrainian army spokesperson Dmytro Lykhoviy said on Wednesday that Russia had 50,000 soldiers around the frontline city.
‘The stakes are getting higher’
“We are doing everything possible to prevent the enemy from advancing deep into our territory,” Syrsky said in a post on social media. His troops were operating in “extremely difficult conditions,” he added. Russian military bloggers and local officials have said Ukrainian forces appear to be conserving ammunition as supplies run low.
Ukraine relies on Western – predominantly US – support to fund and equip its armed forces with the shells, bullets, rockets, tanks and air defenses it needs to hold off Russian attacks.
But the latest multi-billion-dollar aid package has been held up in the US Congress since last year amid political wrangling, threatening to hobble Ukraine’s defensive capacity. The US Senate this week approved $60 billion of funding for Ukraine, but it is unclear whether it will win support in the House of Representatives.
On Wednesday, National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan urged the Republican-led US House to follow the lead of the Senate and quickly pass the assistance package. “We cannot afford to wait any longer. Every day comes at a cost to the people of Ukraine and to the national security interests of the United States of America,” Sullivan told reporters in a briefing at the White House. “The stakes are getting higher. The costs of inaction are also getting higher every day,” he added.
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“We’ve been increasingly getting reports of Ukrainian troops rationing, or even running out of ammunition on the front lines, as Russian forces continue to attack both on the ground, and from trying to wear down Ukrainian air defenses,” Sullivan said.
Black sea ship hit
Despite the conflict having ground to a stalemate on land, Ukraine claimed yet more success in the Black Sea on Wednesday, saying it had sunk another Russian warship off the coast of Crimea. Kyiv’s military intelligence unit and its armed forces said they had “destroyed” Russia’s Caesar Kunikov landing ship in an attack using naval drones.
Ukraine published footage of what it said was a sea drone approaching the Russian ship. There is a blast, and a large fire can be seen. The strikes inflicted “critical holes on the left side and [the ship] began to sink,” the GUR intelligence agency said.
NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg hailed the latest hit. “This is a great achievement, a great victory for Ukrainians,” Stoltenberg told journalists in Brussels.
Russia typically does not respond to Ukrainian claims of successful operations, but military bloggers with close links to the Russian armed forces said it was likely the ship had been hit by Ukrainian forces. “Time after time the Black Sea fleet has turned out to be incompetent and unable to repel attacks from Ukrainian formations,” said the Rybar Telegram channel, one of the largest pro-war Russian accounts.
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