President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy replaced the commander of the eastern front, the most heated battlefield of the Ukraine war after Russian forces captured another strategic town there.
Brigadier-General Andriy Hnatov was replaced as the battlefield commander in the east by Major General Mykhailo Drapatyi, overall commander of ground forces, who will keep his previous duties. Hnatov was given a role overseeing training and communications.
In his nightly video address late on Sunday, Zelenskyy said the aim was to strengthen the command of troops in the Donetsk region. Donetsk, a battlefield since 2014 and one of four provinces Russia claims to have annexed since its 2022 full-scale invasion has been the main focus of fighting for more than a year.
The military of Ukraine confirmed on Monday that it had withdrawn from the Donetsk region town of Velyka Novosilka, a day after Russia said it had captured it. Viktor Trehubov, a military spokesperson for the eastern front of Ukraine, confirmed that Russian troops had entered the town but said fighting continued on the outskirts.
Russian forces have been slowly but steadily advancing in eastern Ukraine for more than a year in relentless ground combat that has caused massive military losses on both sides. Kyiv, for its part, has managed to capture and hold a pocket of territory inside Russia over the past six months.
The new eastern commander of Ukraine, Drapatyi, 42, is well respected in the army. He is credited with stopping a Russian offensive in the northeastern Kharkiv region last year.
Ukrainian forces halted Russia’s initial assault on Kyiv, the capital city of Ukraine, after Russia’s invasion in 2022 and achieved several big successes in recapturing territory during the first year of the war. But they have largely been on the defensive since the failure of a major counterattack in mid-2023.
Ukrainian analysts estimate Russia captured about 3,000 square km (1200 square miles) of territory last year.
With the war approaching its three-year mark in February, Ukraine is out-manned on the battlefield and its troops are exhausted.
The government of Ukraine tried to address the issue by lowering the mobilisation age to 25 from 27 and introducing tougher rules for those evading the call-up. But it has so far resisted lowering the mobilisation age further to boost manpower.
Trehubov, the Eastern Forces of Ukraine spokesperson, said that the logistics hub of Pokrovsk in the Donetsk region remained the main Russian target. Around 7,000 people are believed to remain inside Pokrovsk, which had around 60,000 residents before the invasion.
Team Bharatshakti
(With inputs from Reuters)
