13 July 2022

ussian and Ukrainian Forces Prepare for Next Phase of Battle for Donbas

Isabel Coles and Evan Gershkovich

Russia’s invading army shelled the positions of Ukrainian defenders along the front line as both sides girded for the next battles for control of Ukraine’s east.

After capturing the city of Lysychansk over the weekend, Russian forces are turning their sights to parts of the Donetsk region that remain under Ukrainian control, including the cities of Slovyansk and Bakhmut.

The General Staff of Ukraine’s Armed Forces said Russian troops were seeking to strengthen their tactical positions on the Slovyansk front, firing on the area near the towns of Krasnopillya and Bohorodychne using mortars, rockets and other artillery.

Russian forces are now effectively in full control of the Luhansk region. Donetsk and Luhansk together form the heavily industrial Donbas region, where Russia has concentrated its firepower since retreating from around the capital Kyiv in March.

Russia fomented a rebellion in Donbas in 2014, carving out two Kremlin-run statelets in parts of the region, after annexing Crimea from Ukraine the same year. Russia is now seeking to take full control of Donbas.

Western countries are steadily increasing their military support for Ukraine’s armed forces, sending more advanced artillery systems, among other weapons. But Ukraine’s government has pressed the U.S. and its European allies in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization to send more weapons faster, to help its defenders to cope with Russia’s advantage in firepower and ammunition.

Ukrainian servicemen at their position near the front line in the Kharkiv region, Ukraine, on Tuesday.Photo: Andrii Marienko/Associated Press

Russian troops have made slow but steady territorial gains in eastern Ukraine in recent weeks, relying on intensive artillery bombardments of Ukrainian troops’ positions. The Ukrainian defenders have sought to inflict losses on Russian forces before withdrawing to deeper defensive lines in the region.

Both sides are widely believed to have suffered heavy casualties in the battle for Donbas, which has become one of the bloodiest battles between two states in Europe since World War II.

Serhiy Haidai, the governor of the Luhansk region, said Ukrainian troops were holding Russian forces back at the border between Luhansk and Donetsk, and had thwarted Russia’s efforts to cut off the highway between the cities of Lysychansk and Bakhmut. “Under the pressure of our defenders, the enemy was forced to retreat,” Mr. Haidai said.

Russian shelling has killed at least five civilians in the Donetsk region since Tuesday, including one in Slovyansk and two in Avdiivka, said Pavlo Kyrylenko, the head of the region’s military administration.

The U.K.’s Defense Ministry said Russian forces were about 16 kilometers, 10 miles, north of Slovyansk. “There is a realistic possibility that the battle for Slovyansk will be the next key contest in the struggle for the Donbas,” the ministry said in its daily intelligence update.

Residents of the Ukrainian city of Slovyansk and neighboring towns waited for buses to be evacuated to the city of Dnipro, Ukraine, on Wednesday.Photo: miguel medina/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images

A building damaged by shelling in Kyiv. NATO countries are seeking to boost Ukraine’s military capability in the face of Russian attacks.Photo: Emanuele Satolli for The Wall Street Journal

The arrival in June of U.S. High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems, or Himars, has strengthened Ukrainian troops’ hand by enabling them to target Russian weapons and ammunition depots far behind the front line. In an interview, Oleksiy Danilov, secretary of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council, said nine mobile Himars and similar rocket-launch systems donated by the U.S. and its allies are now operating inside Ukraine.

NATO countries are also seeking to boost Ukraine’s military capability through training. U.K. Defense Secretary Ben Wallace said the first rotation of Ukrainian soldiers had recently arrived in Britain, where they will undertake courses for several weeks including weapons training, battlefield first aid, patrol tactics and training on the law of armed conflict.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in his nightly address on Tuesday that his government was seeking to procure modern antimissile systems to protect cities and towns behind the front line that have been frequently targeted by Russia.

“This is a maximum task for our state—to provide basic security for Ukrainians,” Mr. Zelensky said. “But the fulfillment of this task depends not only on us, but also on the understanding of our fundamental needs by our partners.”

Why Russian Tanks Are Exploding in UkrainePlay video: Why Russian Tanks Are Exploding in UkraineMany Russian tanks have a design feature that leads to an explosion and blows off the top. The ongoing war in Ukraine has put this vulnerability and the future of one of the world’s most popular tanks, the T-72, on public display. Photo: Genya Savilov/Agence France-Presse

Russia’s Defense Ministry said Wednesday its forces were continuing to strike Ukrainian cities across the country, including Kharkiv and Mykolaiv.

A security guard at a university building in Kharkiv was killed in Russian shelling of the city on Tuesday night, according to the regional prosecutor’s office. Two Russian missiles fired from the Black Sea toward the southern port city of Mykolaiv were shot down, Ukrainian air force officials said.

At a conference in Switzerland this week to discuss plans for rebuilding Ukraine, the country’s prime minister Denys Shmyhal said Russia had inflicted more than $100 billion worth of damage on the country’s infrastructure.

Mr. Zelensky told the conference via video link that huge investment would be needed for Ukraine’s reconstruction. Some 80,000 buildings, including 2,102 educational institutions and 799 hospitals and other medical facilities have been destroyed or damaged in the four months since Russia invaded, he said.

A destroyed building in Borodyanka, Ukraine, near Kyiv. Some 80,000 buildings have been damaged or obliterated in the war, according to Ukrainian officials.Photo: Emanuele Satolli for The Wall Street Journal

Irish Prime Minister Micheál Martin on Wednesday surveyed the damage caused by the war in Ukraine. “It is difficult to comprehend the devastation and inhumanity of Russia’s attacks on Irpin, Borodyanka and Bucha,” he said on Twitter. It’s “clear how important it is for women and children to get to Ireland to escape trauma and brutality.”

U.S. officials, meanwhile, are looking to put pressure on Russia to allow a freer flow of grain from Ukraine via the Black Sea when diplomats representing the world’s 20 leading economies gather this week on the Indonesian island of Bali. The U.S. has said that Russia has seized Ukrainian ports and blockaded others, including Odessa, but the Kremlin has said that Ukraine is free to ship grain from its ports.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is set to meet with his counterparts on Friday and Saturday—while avoiding Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, U.S. officials said. Mr. Lavrov is under U.S. sanctions.

On Wednesday, the White House said that President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris had called the wife of American basketball star Brittney Griner, who is being held in a Russian prison, to reassure her that Mr. Biden was “working to secure Brittney’s release as soon as possible.” Ms. Griner’s trial on drug charges carrying a potential 10-year sentence is under way and continues Thursday.

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