When Roman met this newspaper at his farm in Vesele last March, the town in western Donetsk province was still about 10 kilometres from the front where Ukraine has been trying to contain Russian troops for two and a half years. Being there now would be suicidal, says this farmer, once one of the most prosperous in the area but now deprived of his land. Since Saturday, his home has been under the control of the invading army. “The last time I was there was a month ago and I was almost killed by artillery fire three times,” he says. Roman is now taking refuge with his family in a much smaller and less well-equipped house in Mirnograd, the last free town in the area before the front line.
Moscow’s troops are trying to break through Ukrainian defences just 10 kilometres from Mirnograd, and the Ukrainian Armed Forces say the “fierce battles” have made this area the hottest on the war map in recent weeks. Mirnograd lies in the direction of Pokrovsk, and together with Toretsk, another Ukrainian stronghold in Donetsk province, are three of the main cities in the Donbas region – made up of Luhansk and Donetsk provinces – that remain under Ukrainian control.
On Monday, the Russian Ministry of Defense announced the occupation of the towns of Vovche and Progres, near Pokrovsk; and on Tuesday, the capture of Pivdenne, a town in the Toretsk municipality. The advances have also been recorded by DeepStateMap, an open source portal that maps the evolution of the conflict on a daily basis, although the Ukrainian military authorities have not confirmed them. A military source on the ground consulted by Morning Express assures that Vovche and Progres, as well as Vesele, where Roman had his farm, are under Russian control. “The fact that the Russians are in Progres means that they can launch KAB from there.” [bombas aéreas dirigidas]They have a range of 75 kilometers, so they can attack us even further from Pokrovsk; they can reach beyond [la provincia de] Donetsk, until [la de] Dnipropetrovsk,” warns Román.
Nine kilometres to the west of Mirnograd is the battlefield. And a further 10 minutes’ drive to the east is Pokrovsk, which with a pre-war population of 60,000 is the largest city separating the Russian army from Dnipropetrovsk province. Its location at an intersection of roads and railway lines, as well as the development of numerous industries, have made it an important logistical and strategic point in the east of the country.
In the direction of Pokrovsk, Ukraine has reported that its soldiers repelled 52 attacks on nearby settlements on Monday and another 29 in the direction of Toretsk. Russian forces are attacking this area “with considerable support from air and bombing,” the Armed Forces describe.
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In his daily address on July 26, President Volodymyr Zelensky described the fighting in the Pokrovsk sector as “the main target of Russian attacks.” General Oleksandr Syrskyi also said in a statement last week that the enemy is not paying attention to its “high level of losses” and that, despite the casualties, it was still advancing towards Pokrovsk.
Russian troops are advancing at an unusually fast pace. According to military sources consulted on Monday, the reason is that they are using the layout of the railway lines that connect the main cities: from the provincial capital, Donetsk, occupied by pro-Russian forces since 2014, there is a railway that runs through Pokrovsk and reaches Dnipro, the capital of the neighbouring province.
The way forward is through underground trenches built on both sides of the tracks. Their primary function is to drain rainwater so that it does not affect the train tracks and the passage of railways. The Ukrainian army has used them to defend its positions since the start of the large-scale invasion, but Russian troops have gradually taken over them as they gain territory. “They don’t have to dig trenches and can advance quite quickly and protected from our drones,” explains Misha, the pseudonym of a Ukrainian sniper who lived inside them during the first year and a half of the war.
As a result of the advance along the railway line, Russian soldiers are forming a sort of ring around the battalions of the Ukrainian 31st Mechanised Brigade, which is in danger of being surrounded. This is confirmed by Serhii, a soldier who prefers not to give his unit or his surname. “The situation is very difficult. The comrades who were positioned on our left have lost their positions and Russia is advancing there. We will have to move if we do not want to be surrounded,” he explains outside a supermarket in Pokrovsk.
In Mirnograd, artillery fire can be heard. There are hardly any inhabitants left in this town of single-family cottages surrounded by flower gardens and fruit trees. In the garden of their house, Roman and his wife, Yulia, invite people to a plate of borschtthe traditional Ukrainian soup. He admits to being outraged that no one listened to him when he warned, almost at the beginning of the invasion, that it would be advisable to blow up the railway lines. This businessman began helping the Ukrainian army in 2014, when pro-Russian forces attacked Donbas for the first time, and since then he has housed and helped hundreds of soldiers on his farm. He is not just a farmer who was one of the most prosperous in the region; he is one of the people with the best knowledge and contacts in the military field and for all this he has received death threats. “They called me from a phone in Donetsk a month ago and told me that I am considered an enemy of Russia.”
Urgent need for weapons
Nearly 900 days after the start of the full-scale invasion, Ukraine has been reinforced by its allied countries with new weapons, but not enough to stop the advance of the Russian troops. In addition, Moscow is allocating huge resources to break through to this important strategic and logistical point. “Russia is using everything to advance: motorcycles, infantry, tanks… When they know our positions, they also send bombs from the air, and we can only try to stay safe,” says Serhii. This soldier claims that they are receiving at least 260 attacks a day. “In addition, they attack us from areas inhabited by civilians, so we cannot return the attacks,” he adds.
In a recent interview with The GuardianGeneral Syrskyi acknowledged that the situation is very difficult and that Russia has two to three times as many resources and equipment as Ukraine. More tanks, more infantry and more combat vehicles: for example, from 100,000 men with whom they began the full-scale invasion, there are now 520,000, he said. And the tanks have doubled from 1,700 to 3,500. Ukraine, on the other hand, does not provide figures on the number of its troops.
“We need troops, but we also need artillery, missiles, tanks… Actually, everything, because we are stopping the enemy with our own bodies. Please remember us in the West and send us weapons,” Serhii asks.
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