- The Guardian Saturday 30 April 2022
(^16) News
War in Ukraine
Russia’s off ensive in east
of Ukraine comes amid
fears of a protracted war
Peter Beaumont
Amid mounting fears among western
offi cials that Russia’s war in Ukraine
could drag on for months or years,
the Kremlin appears to be focusing
its operations around Izium as part of
renewed eff orts to seize the entirety
of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions.
According to Ukrainian military
offi cials, Russian forces have been
massing fresh forces around the city,
75 miles south-east of Kharkiv on the
Donets river, as well as around the
Russian city of Belgorod across the
border. There are unconfi rmed claims
that the chief of the Russian general
staff , Valer y Gerasimov, has been put
in command of the push.
In the past week alone, Moscow
has added 13 battalion tactical groups
to its forces in eastern and south-
ern Ukraine , representing between
10,000 and 13,000 extra troops.
The mounting scale of the off en-
sive around Izium comes as an
unnamed US offi cial suggested on
Thursday that some Russian troops
who had been fi ghting in the south-
ern port city of Mariupol were being
moved north-west, perhaps as part
of an eff ort to encircle areas of the
Donetsk and Luhansk regions still
under Ukrainian control.
According to the latest update
from the Institute for the Study of
War, Russian forces appeared to be
seeking to bypass Izium to avoid get-
ting bogged down in fi ghting there,
instead heading in the direction of
Slovyansk , an assessment echoed by
the most recent Ukrainian updates.
“Russian forces attacking [the]
south-west from Izium likely seek
to bypass Ukrainian defences on the
direct road to Slovyansk,” read the
institute’s update, noting that Rus-
sian forces had made only minor
gains in the past 24 hours.
It added, however, that “additional
Russian reinforcements continue to
deploy to Belgorod to support the
Izium advance”.
Russian forces appear to be
attempting to break through the
Ukrainian defences on a salient to
the north-east of Slovyansk, while
attempting to encircle Ukrainian
forces to the east at Severodonetsk.
The new focus of the Kremlin’s
war – aimed at building a broad land
bridge from the Russian border to
occupied Crimea and beyond – has
come with a shift in tactics to a slower
and more deliberate advance as the
Russian military has continued to
struggle with logistics and other
problems in managing its campaign.
The latest stage of the off ensive
has been marked by increased use
of artillery fi re to support the slowly
advancing Russian troops, with a
Pentagon offi cial describing “slow
and uneven” progress in fi erce fi ght-
ing in the Donbas region.
Source: The Institute for the Study of War with AEI’s Critical Threats Project, 2230 BST 28 April
Russian-controlled territory Russian advances Areas where Ukraine has regained control
Russia's assault on eastern Ukraine
Kharkiv
Donetsk
Luhansk
Donetsk
Ukraine
Izium – Ukraine's general staff of the armed
forces says Russian troops are trying to launch
an offensive towards Velyka Komyshuvakha,
Nova Dmytrivka, Sulyhivka and Andriivka
Severodonetsk
Russian forces are
attempting to
encircle the town
Slovyansk
ISW says Russian forces
attacking from Izium are likely
to seek to bypass Ukrainian
defences on the road to
Slovyansk
2014-22 frontline
Russian forces
continue shelling
and minor attacks
Yampil
Russian forces are
attempting to push
through Ukrainian
defences around
the village
Kreminna
Sulyhivka
Nova Dmytrivka
Andriivka
Velyka
Komyshuvakha
20 miles
20 km
Kyiv
Izium
‘There is absolutely
the possibility that
this war will drag on’
Jens Stoltenberg
Nato secretary general