Russian offensive to recapture Kursk hands Ukraine respite in Donetsk

Barefoot to avoid getting mud on the armored vehicle. This is how the artillerymen of the 26th Brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine fire their howitzer at enemy troops trying to advance on the front at Chasiv Yar, the strategic city in the eastern province of Donetsk that has been under Russian siege for months. Military analysts and senior Ukrainian army commanders have warned that the Russian offensive has stalled in recent weeks in this region due, among other reasons, to the Kremlin’s diversion of troops to the Russian province of Kursk to expel the Ukrainian army from there. But the situation is not the same across the entire front. In some cities, attacks remain a constant, as Artur Polishchuk, commander of this unit, explains. “Here the situation is worse because they haven’t withdrawn troops; they’ve sent more, and they’re advancing. Little by little, but they’re getting closer,” he says from his position, 10 kilometers (6.2 miles) from the front. However, infantry recruit Igor, from an assault unit heading toward the town of Ivanivske, confirms that many armored vehicles have withdrawn. “The situation is calmer. In fact, our guys should attack because the Russians have more weaknesses now.”

Moscow’s plans for Donetsk province over the past six months prioritized the partial encirclement of Pokrovsk, another of the cities hotly contested in the past year, and the cutting of supply lines for its defenders, Viktor Tregubov, spokesman for the Ukrainian army’s Khortytsya Strategic Operational Group, told EL PAÍS. They also hoped to take Chasiv Yar and Toretsk, which could have helped pave the way to Sloviansk and then Kramatorsk, the capital of the Donetsk territory still under the flag of free Ukraine. All those plans went awry. “They failed to take either Chasiv Yar or Toretsk, although in the latter case they officially proclaimed a nonexistent victory,” Tregubov says. These cities are part of Ukraine’s “fortress belt,” a 50-kilometer line that forms the backbone of the country’s defenses in this eastern province.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy posted the following message last week: “Thanks to Ukrainian forces in Kursk, a significant number of Russian troops were withdrawn from other directions.” But depending on who you ask, this feeling of “stopping the Russians” is greater, lesser, or nonexistent, and sometimes a few kilometers make a world of difference. Mikhail and Anatoly, two infantry recruits fighting in the direction of Toretsk, say they have no sense that the situation has changed. Ivanivske, already occupied according to data from Deep State, the leading Ukrainian map of war analysis, is now calmer, according to Igor, but just nine kilometers away, in Andriivka, the reality is very different. “The assaults continue constantly. There are waves and waves and waves of them,” says Sid, the code name for one of the deputy commanders of the 93rd Kholodnyi Yar Independent Mechanized Brigade.

In line with Polishchuk are the latest reports from the U.S. think tank Institute for the Study of War (ISW), which indicate that the Russian military is intensifying offensive operations in Chasiv Yar and Toretsk, “likely to take advantage of any immediate and long-term battlefield impact of the cessation of U.S. aid to Ukraine.”

Outside the armored vehicle, an AHS Krab supplied by Poland, Major Polishchuk wears boots. But both he and gunners Yehor Vlasov and Oleksandr Strelnytskyi keep their socks on when they enter, so as not to bring in more mud, which at this rainy time of year is everywhere, especially in the forest where they camouflage themselves. Lately, they spend their days running from the bunker where they live to the tank, taking off their boots and putting them back on when they’re done, because the attacks here haven’t stopped: on the contrary, they’re increasing. “Over the last month, our positions were attacked more than 100 times in seven days,” says Andrii Goretskyi, a brigade battery commander, in charge of this artillery unit and three others of the same type.

With each blast, the howitzer fires shells 10 kilometers away, into the fearsome front line where the trenches of their fellow infantrymen of the 56th Brigade are located. When enemy movement toward them is detected, Polishchuk’s men launch a few high-explosive 155-millimeter shells. This is to deter further advance or attack, or to take them out, in the best-case scenario for the shooter. One less Russian, one less problem. “It’s a huge responsibility; you have to be very focused because there’s no room for error; if you don’t calculate the coordinates correctly, you can shoot a comrade,” explains the commander while Vlasov and Strelnytskyi resupply the armored vehicle with fresh ammunition.

Pokrovsk, another battle

Pokrovsk, a strategic city in Donbas, has been experiencing one of the fiercest offensives in this region of mud and snow since last summer. But here, the tide seems to have turned for the first time. On March 16, the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine published a video of the town, reduced to rubble, but accompanied by an optimistic message: “The Russians haven’t taken a single position in a month.”

The Pokrovsk front is one of the priorities for Russian troops. However, despite their resources and large numbers of personnel, the advance has stalled here. For more than a month, they have not only failed to capture new positions, but in some places have lost previously held ones, the Border Guard’s message indicates. The ISW report of March 12 also records advances by Ukrainian forces in this direction.

For Treguvob, the situation has become a “disaster” for the invading army. “They launched an all-out offensive operation in January and February and failed to cut off even the relatively nearby Dnipro highway,” he notes. The spokesperson for the Khortytsya Strategic Operational Group maintains that the secret of success has been the city’s well-trained defenders and the effective cooperation between the infantry and drone pilots. “Our guys have managed to retake some villages there, so the result of the entire Russian operation is less than meager, and yes, we are happy,” he says. Zelenskiy also acknowledged this, in one of his daily messages on social media: “I am grateful to all Ukrainian units for their resilience and effectiveness in destroying the occupier. The situation in the Pokrovsk direction has been stabilized.” Deep State has recorded several liberated villages near this city in recent weeks.

Gunners Polishchuk, Vlasov, and Strelnytskyi share a filthy underground bunker. Four rough wooden cots, cardboard boxes on a dirt floor, and no more light than a flashlight. A camping gas stove and battlefield rations: sliced bread, ultra-processed sausages, margarine, tea bags, and Nescafé. They’re putting the kettle on to boil when the radio crackles. Intermittent beeps, a male voice speaking in Ukrainian. It’s an alert that their comrades have detected a new Russian target to fire at. Quickly, they run to their armored vehicle, take off their boots, and begin work, with barely any time to say goodbye. Outside, only Commander Goretskyi remains, issuing a final plea: “The tallest building left in Chasiv Yar isn’t even a meter high — that’s the level of destruction. And for what? Just so Putin can put up his fucking flag. Please, don’t stop talking about Chasiv Yar.”

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