Ukrainian troops losing ground to Russia as Trump talks of ending war

By SAMYA KULLAB, VASILISA STEPANENKO and EVGENIY MALOLETKA

POKROVSK REGION, Ukraine (AP) — A dire shortage of infantry troops and proviso routes coming nether Russian drone attacks are conspiring against Ukrainian forces successful Pokrovsk, where decisive battles successful the astir three-year warfare are playing retired — and clip is moving short.

Ukrainian troops are losing crushed around the important proviso hub, which lies astatine the confluence of aggregate highways starring to cardinal cities successful the eastern Donetsk region as good arsenic an important railway station.

Moscow is acceptable connected capturing arsenic overmuch territory arsenic imaginable as the Trump administration is pushing for negotiations to extremity the warfare and recently froze overseas aid to Ukraine, a determination that has shocked Ukrainian officials already apprehensive astir the intentions of the caller U.S. president, their astir important ally. Military assistance has not stopped, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said.

Ukrainian soldiers successful Pokrovsk said that Russian forces switched tactics successful caller weeks, attacking their flanks alternatively of going head-on to signifier a pincer question astir the city. With Russians successful power of ascendant heights, Ukrainian proviso routes are present wrong their range. Heavy fog successful caller days prevented Ukrainian soldiers from efficaciously using surveillance drones, allowing Russians to consolidate and instrumentality much territory.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian commanders accidental they do not person capable reserves to prolong defence lines and that caller infantry units are failing to execute operations. Many pin hopes connected Mykhailo Drapatyi, a respected commandant precocious appointed by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy arsenic crushed forces chief, to displacement the dynamic and counterattack.

“The warfare is won by logistics. If determination is nary logistics, determination is nary infantry, due to the fact that determination is nary mode to proviso it,” said the lawman commandant of the Da Vinci Wolves battalion, known by the telephone motion Afer.

“(Russians) person learned this and are doing it rather well.”

Poor upwind astatine the worst time

A operation of factors led Kyiv to efficaciously suffer the colony of Velyka Novosilka this past week, their astir important summation since seizing the metropolis of Kurakhove successful the Donetsk portion successful January.

Scattered groups of Ukrainian soldiers are inactive contiguous successful Velyka Novosilka’s confederate sector, Ukrainian commanders said, prompting disapproval from immoderate subject experts who questioned wherefore the higher bid did not bid a afloat withdrawal.

The road-junction colony is 15 kilometers (9 miles) from the neighboring Dnipropetrovsk region, wherever authorities person begun digging fortifications for the archetypal clip since Russia’s full-scale penetration successful February 2022, anticipating further Russian advances.

Russia amassed a ample fig of infantry astir Velyka Novosilka, soldiers determination said. As dense fog acceptable successful in caller days, Ukrainian drones “barely worked” to behaviour surveillance, 1 commandant adjacent Pokrovsk told The Associated Press. Long-range and medium-range surveillance was impossible, helium said. He spoke connected information of anonymity successful bid to talk freely astir delicate subject matters.

“Because of this, the force was amassing forces … taking up positions, digging in. They were precise bully astatine it,” helium said.

It was astatine that fateful infinitesimal that Russian forces launched a monolithic attack: Up to 10 columns of armoured vehicles, each with up to 10 units, moved retired from assorted directions.

Ukrainian logistics successful peril

Key logistics routes on asphalted roads and highways are nether nonstop menace from Russian drones arsenic a effect of Moscow’s caller gains, further straining Ukrainian troops.

Russian forces present inhabit cardinal ascendant heights astir the Pokrovsk region, which allows them to usage drones up to 30 kilometers (18 miles) heavy into Ukrainian beforehand lines.

The Pokrovsk-Pavlohrad-Dnipro road is “already nether the power of Russian drones,” said the commandant astatine Pokrovsk’s flanks. Russian forces are little than 4 kilometers ( 2 1/2 miles) distant and are affecting Ukrainian traffic, helium said. “Now the roadworthy is lone 10% of its erstwhile capacity,” helium said.

Another paved highway, the Myrnohrad-Kostyantynivka road, is besides nether Russian fire, helium said.

This besides means that successful mediocre weather, subject vehicles, including armored unit carriers, tanks and pickup trucks, person to trudge done the unfastened fields to present fuel, nutrient and ammunition, arsenic good arsenic evacuate the wounded.

In a first-aid presumption adjacent Pokrovsk, a paramedic with the telephone motion Marik said evacuating wounded soldiers erstwhile took hours, present it takes days.

“Everything is disposable (by force drones) and it is precise difficult,” helium said.

New recruits are unprepared

Ukrainian soldiers successful Pokrovsk said shortages of warring troops are “catastrophic” and challenges are compounded by recently created infantry units that are poorly trained and inexperienced, putting much unit connected battle-hardened brigades having to measurement successful to stabilize the beforehand line.

Afer, the lawman commander, complained that caller recruits are “constantly extending the beforehand enactment due to the fact that they permission their positions, they bash not clasp them, they bash not power them, they bash not show them. We bash astir each the enactment for them.”

“Because of this, having initially a 2-kilometer country of responsibility, you extremity up with 8-9 kilometers per battalion, which is simply a batch and we don’t person capable resources,” Afer said. Drones are particularly hard to travel by for his battalion, helium said, adding they lone person fractional of what they need.

“It’s not due to the fact that they person little prime infantry, but due to the fact that they are wholly unprepared for modern warfare,” helium said of the caller recruits.

His battalion has astir nary reserves, forcing infantry units to clasp front-line positions for weeks astatine a time. For each 1 of his soldiers, Russians person 20, helium said, emphasizing however outnumbered they are.

Back astatine the first-aid station, a wounded worker with the telephone motion Fish was recovering from a limb coiled sustained aft helium tried to evacuate a fallen comrade. He had moved him from a dugout to load him into a conveyance erstwhile the Russian mortar ammunition exploded nearby.

“We are warring backmost arsenic overmuch arsenic we can, arsenic champion arsenic we can,” helium said.

Kullab reported from Kyiv, Ukraine. Associated Press writer Volodymyr Yurchuk contributed to this report.

Originally Published: February 3, 2025 astatine 2:45 PM EST