Al Jazeera Media Network) Ukraine has reportedly repelled a battalion-sized mechanized assault on its eastern front – the first attack of such a scale in five months – proving the resilience of its defences, but raising concerns that Russia is becoming increasingly ambitious as it gears up for an expected major offensive.
The attack on Sunday reportedly included three dozen tanks and a dozen infantry fighting vehicles, and struck near Tonenke, a village close to Avdiivka, the city Russia overran on February 17 and has been inching westward from ever since.
“The start was very good. We carried out combined fire,” said a Russian trainer of Storm-Z assault forces. “On subsequent approaches, which lasted until lunchtime, the fire supply dwindled to sparse artillery fire … and then significant losses began.”
Yet he noted that the last group of vehicles to enter the fray suffered no losses, possibly indicating that local Ukrainian defences had been exhausted: “I would venture to cautiously suggest that these regular visits could ultimately overload the enemy’s strike capabilities.”
“We are trying to find some way not to retreat,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told the Washington Post’s David Ignatius in an interview published two days before the battle.
“If there is no US support, it means that we have no air defence, no Patriot missiles, no jammers for electronic warfare, no 155-millimetre artillery rounds,” he said. “It means we will go back, retreat, step by step, in small steps.”
Some $60.1 billion in United States military aid the administration of Joe Biden requested last December has been stalled by a small group of lawmakers loyal to former President Donald Trump, who hopes to return to power in the November election.
Europe was stepping in to cover some of the shortages. A Czech initiative had reportedly located one million artillery shells around the world that would start being delivered to Ukraine this month; and France pledged hundreds of reconditioned armoured personnel vehicles.