Developments on the front: Russian troops advance northwest of Avdiivka, Ukrainian civilians flee / The 98-year-old woman who walked 10 kilometers to escape the village attacked by the Russians

The Ukrainian army, faced with the superiority of the Russian troops in terms of troops and weaponry, is trying to stop the rapid advance of the latter northwest of the city of Avdiivka, in the Donetsk region, from where the locals are fleeing to escape the Russian occupation.

Although limited by reporting to the scale of the entire front more than 1,000 kilometers long, the recent Russian advances near the village of Oceretîne (Ocheretyne), northwest of the occupied city of Donetsk, represent the biggest success of Russian troops since the occupation of the nearby town of Avdiivka, writes the EFE press agency on Tuesday, taken over by Agerpres. In addition to that village, which the Russian troops control in a proportion of about 80%, they also occupied others in the area.

Kiev’s forces withdrew to reserve positions already prepared to the west, and the commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian army, General Oleksandr Sîrski, sent reinforcements to the area.

A 98-year-old local woman from Oceretîne walked 10 kilometers to escape the village attacked by the Russians. Her house was destroyed and her relatives are injured, says the old woman in a video broadcast by the Ukrainian police.

“I survived that war (World War II) and I am surviving this one too. I have nothing left. But I left on my own two feet and I still have Ukraine,” she says.

“The entire Russian military industry is trying to kill us. And we, the damned, are still alive”, writes Ukrainian writer Stanislav Aseiev, currently a soldier in the infantry troops engaged in the battles in the Oceretîne sector, on social media.

Russia’s “overwhelming” advantage

According to Aseyev, Russia relies heavily on guided bombs to destroy Ukrainian positions and move on, while Ukraine begs its allies to provide it with more anti-aircraft systems.

These glider guided bombs, the smallest of which weighs half a ton, have a great destructive power and a demoralizing effect on the troops, and the Ukrainian army has no antidote against them, only to shoot down the Russian planes that launch them from a distance of about 70 kilometers. It’s depressing, because “soldiers know they can die at any moment,” says the Ukrainian writer-turned-soldier.

“The impression is that the units of our army in this area are simply exhausted”, remarks the Ukrainian military analyst, Kostantin Maşoveţ, who emphasizes the “overwhelming” advantage of Russia in troops and equipment on that sector of the front.

However, he considers it unlikely that the Russian troops will advance much further there, as the gap of about 10 kilometers long that they have opened makes them vulnerable to Ukrainian attacks from the flanks.

The difficult situation for the Ukrainian military in that area is the result of long-standing deficiencies, according to the Ukrainian military analysis group Frontelligence Insight, which lists among these factors the failure of the West to supply Ukraine with sufficient weapons and ammunition, the slow mobilization of new soldiers into the ranks of the army Ukrainian forces and the construction of too few fortified positions.

The Ukrainian army is likely to face a difficult summer, before the intensification of mobilization and the arrival of more Western weapons and ammunition allow the stabilization of the front line, anticipates the same analysis group.

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