Kyiv at risk amid delays in aid: analysts

Russia is focusing its efforts west of Bakhmut to try to capture Chasiv Yar by May 9 before moving toward Kramatorsk, Ukraine’s military chief said

More civilians died across Ukraine on Sunday as analysts warned that delays in US military assistance would see Kyiv struggle to fight off Russian offensives.

One man was killed on Sunday after a Russian drone hit the truck he was driving in the Sumy region, the local prosecutor’s office said. Elsewhere, a 67-year-old woman was killed after shelling hit an apartment block in the Donetsk region, Governor Vadym Filashkin said.

Officials in the Kharkiv region on Sunday also said that they had retrieved the bodies of a 61-yearold woman and a 68-year-old man killed by a Russian strike the previous day.

Ten Russian Shahed-type drones were shot down over the Kharkiv region overnight, the Ukrainian Air Force said.

Meanwhile, shelling in the Russian-occupied Kherson region killed two civilians, Moscow-installed leader Vladimir Saldo said.

Ukrainian drones were also reported in Russia’s Krasnodar and Belgorod regions and over the Black Sea, the Russian Ministry of Defense said.

The news came as the Washington-based

Institute for the Study of War warned that delays in Western military assistance would increasingly hamper Ukraine’s ability to push back Russian advances.

With the war in Ukraine entering its third year and a vital US aid package for Kyiv stuck in Congress, Russia has used its edge in firepower and personnel to step up attacks across eastern Ukraine.

It has increasingly used satelliteguided gliding bombs — dropped from planes from a safe distance — to pummel Ukrainian forces beset by a shortage of troops and ammunition.

In its report, the think tank said that Russian forces were prioritizing grinding, tactical gains with operational-level efforts focusing on the cities of Lyman, Chasiv Yar and Pokrovsk.

“The Russian military command likely assesses that Ukrainian forces will be unable to defend against current and future Russian offensive operations due to delays in or the permanent end of US military assistance,” it said.

Ukranian Armed Forces Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrsky on Sunday said that Russian forces aimed to capture the town of Chasiv Yar by May 9, setting the stage for an important battle for control of high ground in the east where Russia is focusing its assaults.

Syrskyi, who on Saturday warned that the situation in the east had deteriorated, said Russia was focusing its efforts west of occupied Bakhmut to try to capture Chasiv Yar before moving toward the city of Kramatorsk.

Chasiv Yar in the Donetsk region lies 5 to 10km from Bakhmut, the devastated city captured by Russian forces in May last year after months of bloody fighting.

Kyiv’s brigades were holding back the assaults near Chasiv Yar for now and had been reinforced with ammunition, drones and electronic warfare devices, he said in a statement on the Telegram messenger.

“The threat remains relevant, taking into account the fact that the higher Russian military leadership has set its troops the task of capturing Chasiv Yar by May 9,” he said, without elaborating.

Ukrainian Minister of Defense Rustem Umerov wrote on Facebook that he visited Ukrainian units on the eastern front on Sunday and described the situation as “tense,” with Russia trying to make headway in areas west of Bakhmut.

“Despite the numerical superiority of the enemy, we effectively disrupt these plans thanks to the courage, training and professionalism of the defenders,” he wrote.

Russia marks May 9 with a big military parade on Red Square overseen by Russian President Vladimir Putin who won a new six-year term in the Kremlin at a tightly-controlled election in March.