Russian troops have made small territorial gains on the front line in eastern Ukraine in recent weeks, using a numerical advantage seen as a decisive factor in the grueling fighting, according to the New York Times, picked up by The Guardian and the BBC Russian service.

Recent Russian offensives near Avdiyivka, as well as around other cities such as Kupyansk, Bakhmut and Maryinka, are also further evidence that Russia has firmly seized the initiative on much of the battlefield, after Ukraine’s most prominent general Valery Zaluzhnyi recognized the last. A month later, the counteroffensive launched in June reached a dead end, which President Volodymyr Zelenskyi denied.

And Ihor Yovkva, Zelenskyi’s chief diplomatic adviser, criticized the comments in The Economist by the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, General Valery Zaluzhny, who warned against disclosing information from the battlefield.

“Because then we make it easier for the aggressor. I am sure that everything has been read very carefully [în Rusia]it was noted and conclusions were drawn,” Ihor Yovkva said on Ukrainian television on Saturday.

At the same time, Russian troops are advancing at a critical moment for the government in Kyiv, which has called on its biggest ally, the United States, for fresh aid.

“Currently, the situation on the front line is difficult and is gradually worsening,” said Yehor Chernev, Deputy Chairman of the Committee of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine on National Security, Defense and Intelligence.

“Without American weapons, we’re starting to lose ground that was hard-won this summer.”

According to the Institute for the Study of War, since the beginning of the offensive near Avdiivka in October, Russia has gained a total of about 11 km in all directions around the city.

“But it cost them dearly,” Ukrainian military spokesman Oleksandr Stupun said on national television on Wednesday.

“We have more men than you have ammunition”

According to him, Russia lost 25,000 soldiers in the east in two months, most of them in the Avdiyivka area.

“I would say that the motto of their attacks is: ‘We have more people than you have ammunition, bullets, rockets and shells,'” Tyhiy, a major in the National Guard of Ukraine in Avdiivka, said in an audio message, using only his call sign. to identify oneself, in accordance with Ukrainian military regulations.

Many Ukrainians have not yet been drafted into the army, and the authorities do not want to resort to mass mobilization, fearing the exacerbation of social tension, the NYT comments, the Russian service of the BBC reports.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi said on Tuesday that the army has requested the mobilization of an additional 450,000-500,000 people, but no final decision has been made.

At a press conference in Kyiv, the Ukrainian leader said that high-ranking military and government officials should discuss “this very sensitive issue of mobilization”, and then the parliament will consider it.

Meanwhile, Russian troops are closing in on the town of Avdiyivka, which the New York Times describes as a Ukrainian stronghold in the Donetsk region.

Capturing the city would be a strategic success for Russia, as it is the linchpin of Ukraine’s defenses in Donbas, as well as a symbol of resistance that Russian-backed forces tried to capture in 2014.

The American publication notes that Russia is “making such progress” amid a political battle in both the US and Europe over continued military aid to Kiev, which Ukraine “desperately needs” to counter Russia.

The US did not approve new aid to Ukraine

The U.S. Congress will end 2023 without approving a $61 billion package that Kyiv and the White House have been pushing for, according to a statement released Tuesday by the Democratic and Republican leaders of the U.S. Senate.

Negotiators from the Republican and Democratic parties did not reach an agreement, despite repeated pressure from President Biden and calls from his Ukrainian colleague Volodymyr Zelenskyi.

Senate leaders Chuck Schumer, a Democrat, and Mitch McConnell, a Republican, said they hoped to be able to vote on the bailout “early next year.”

It is yet another disappointment for the Ukrainian president in a year marked by dashed hopes for a major successful counteroffensive, increased Russian pressure on the front and the rejection of €50 billion in aid from the European Union.

The White House has already warned that there will be “no resources” for Ukraine “until the end of the year.”

The Ukrainian army changes its tactics and barricades itself in the trenches.

The Ukrainian army decided to barricade itself in the trenches in the conditions of a long and difficult winter in order to stop the current offensive of Russia on all fronts and not to lose more territory, especially in the Donetsk region, the EFE news agency reported on Thursday. , writes Agerpres.

“Departments of the State Special Transport Service are erecting fortifications in designated areas,” the General Staff of Ukraine reported, without providing details.

So far, Ukraine has not chosen such a defensive tactic, as it expected that its troops would be able to liberate large parts of the territory occupied by Russia in the counteroffensive launched on June 4, but for now, the Ukrainian counteroffensive seems to be completely blocked.

As his troops have been on the defensive in recent weeks, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi has ordered the construction of fortifications to halt the enemy advance in an early October offensive by Russian troops.

“Surovikin Line”, a successful tactic for the Russians

These fortified structures resemble a tactic used by the Russian army itself when threatened by a Ukrainian counteroffensive, a tactic that later proved successful and is known as the “Surovikin Line”, after the Russian general who led this defense. line, but in the meantime fell into disgrace after being suspected of supporting the uprising of Wagner’s mercenaries led by Yevgeny Prigozhin in June.

These complex defensive lines, divided into several levels and protected by minefields, are considered the main reason for the failure of the Ukrainian counteroffensive, in which Kyiv lost a large number of soldiers and equipment during the assault of its mechanized troops from the first days. brigades in Russian positions on three offensive lines in Zaporizhzhia and Donetsk provinces.

In his major press conference at the end of the year, President Zelensky cited as an example the fortifications already built on the front line in the northeastern Kharkiv province, where the Russian army has mobilized significant resources to try to capture the strategic city of Kupyansk. , and asked that these structures be erected in other areas of the front as well, reproaching the commanders of the armies that they had not yet done so. “When I see it here, but not in other regions, I ask specific questions to military commands in other sectors. Enough? And then why is (protection) weaker than in Kharkiv?” Zelenskyy asked.

This also applies to the sector of Avdiyivka, a city in eastern Donetsk region, which the Russians have been trying to capture for three months.