KYIV, Ukraine – More civilians died across Ukraine on Sunday as analysts warned that delays in US military assistance would leave Kiev struggling to counter Russian offensives.
A man died on Sunday after a Russian drone hit the truck he was driving in the Sumy region, the local prosecutor’s office said.
Authorities in the Kharkiv region also said on Sunday that they had recovered the bodies of a 61-year-old woman and a 68-year-old man killed in a Russian attack the day before. Ten Russian Shahed-type drones were shot down in the Kharkiv region overnight, the Ukrainian Air Force said on Sunday.
Meanwhile, shelling in the Russian-occupied region of Kherson killed two civilians on Sunday, Moscow-based leader Vladimir Saldo said. Ukrainian drones have also been reported in Russia’s Krasnodar and Belgorod regions and in the Black Sea, the Russian Defense Ministry said.
The news came as the Washington-based Institute for the Study of War warned that delays in Western military assistance would increasingly undermine Ukraine’s ability to combat Russian advances.
With the war in Ukraine entering its third year and a vital US aid package for Kiev stuck in Congress, Russia has used its advantage in firepower and personnel to intensify attacks across eastern Ukraine. It has increasingly used satellite-guided glide bombs – dropped from planes at a safe distance – to attack Ukrainian forces beset by troop and ammunition shortages.
In its report, the ISW said Russian forces were prioritizing tactical and overwhelming gains, with operational-level efforts focused on the cities of Lyman, Chasiv Yar and Pokrovsk.
“The Russian military command likely assesses that Ukrainian forces will be unable to defend themselves against current and future Russian offensive operations due to delays or the permanent end of US military assistance,” the think tank said.
Ukraine’s military chief, General Oleksandr Syrskyi, said on Saturday that Ukraine’s battlefield situation in the industrial east had “worsened significantly in recent days” as warmer weather allowed Russian forces to launch a new advance into the along several stretches of the more than 1,000 kilometers (620 miles)-long front line.
In an update on the Telegram messaging app, Syrskyi said Russian forces were “actively attacking” Ukrainian positions near the cities of Lyman, Bakhmut and Pokrovsk, and beginning to launch tank attacks as the drier and warmer spring weather sets in. made it easier for heavy vehicles. to move across previously muddy terrain.
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