An explosion lit up the night sky, causing flames to rise dozens of meters high. Another large explosion followed a few seconds later, followed by the next. Explosions echoed for miles in the fields east of Chasiv Yar mixed with the whistling sound of jets, according to a Wall Street Journal report on April 23.
Russian aircraft are attacking this eastern Ukrainian city – currently Moscow’s main target in Ukraine – with glide bombs. Meanwhile, Ukrainian forces, outnumbered and outgunned, are struggling to maintain control of Chasiv Yar long enough for new weapons to arrive from the United States.
Perched on a mountainside overlooking Bakhmut, the eastern Ukrainian city that Russia took control of last year after fierce fighting, Chasiv Yar is a valuable strategic follow-on target. If Ukraine loses the city, Kiev’s remaining strongholds in the eastern Donetsk region would become prime targets for an expected Russian offensive this summer.
“It was a high point. If the enemy captures Chasiv Yar, they will have fire control against Druzhkivka, Kramatorsk and Kostyantynivka,” Yury Fedorenko, commander of the Achilles Attack Drone Battalion of Ukraine’s 92nd Assault Brigade, said. activity around Chasiv Yar said when listing three of the largest settlements in the region still under Ukrainian control.
For every round of Ukrainian artillery fire, Russia responds tenfold in numbers, and Ukrainian soldiers in the area say the ratio is getting worse. On the front line stretching across the fields and villages east of Chasiv Yar, the Russian army was still advancing, closing in on the eastern edge of Chasiv Yar.
Inside Chasiv Yar, Russian forces are attacking fortifications where Ukrainian soldiers could hide, the same strategy Russia used in Bakhmut except glide bombs are allowing them to do it much faster in Chasiv Yar.
Mick Ryan, military strategist and retired Australian Army Major General, said: “Glide bombs are incredibly destructive, even in fortified areas.”
Attacking, as Russian forces are doing now, is always more difficult than defending. To reach Chasiv Yar, Russian units would have to cross a canal running east of the city, then advance up a steep hill.
The amount of weapons the United States is willing to provide will give Ukraine a better chance of maintaining control. On April 23, the US Congress passed a billion-dollar aid bill to Ukraine, and once President Biden signs it, artillery shells can be delivered to Ukraine in the next few days.
Additional air defense systems are capable of intercepting Russian jets that fire glide bombs – Soviet-era heavy bombs that Moscow has improved by adding wings and satellite navigation systems to they can be launched from farther away instead of dropped.
But Ukraine’s military faces other problems that US aid cannot solve.
Ukrainian forces are exhausted after months of relentless fighting, and Kiev is short of manpower to deploy to replace them. As a result, additional deployments at the front that were supposed to last five days may have lasted 10 or 15 days. During that time, Ukrainian soldiers may run out of food, water and medicine.
According to Ukrainian officials, about 700 civilians remain in the city, down from a pre-conflict population of 12,000.
The Ukrainian army and the country’s military commanders all say that many of their problems will be solved once artillery ammunition stocks are replenished. They said that with more artillery support, casualties would be reduced, which would help alleviate manpower shortages.
But military analysts say fighting to hold the city, as Ukraine did with Bakhmut for months last year, will nonetheless come at a cost. Retired Australian Army Major General Ryan said of Ukraine’s leaders: “They will have to make some difficult political decisions: Continue their efforts to control Chasiv Yar or give up to preserve manpower and lives.” soldiers’ lives. This is the difficult situation they are facing.”
