More civilians die in Ukraine as analysts warn over US aid delays
15 April 2024, 08:04
Vital assistance for Kyiv’s war effort is stuck in US congress.
More civilians have died across Ukraine as analysts warned that delays in US military assistance would see Kyiv struggle to fight off Russian offensives.
One man was killed on Sunday after a Russian drone hit the truck he was driving in the Sumy region, the local prosecutor’s office said.
Elsewhere, a 67-year-old woman was killed after shelling hit an apartment block in the Donetsk region, said governor Vadym Filashkin.
Officials in the Kharkiv region also said they had retrieved the bodies of a 61-year-old woman and a 68-year-old man killed by a Russian strike the previous day.
Over the last week, Russian terrorists used nearly 130 "Shahed" drones against Ukraine; fortunately, we were able to intercept the vast majority of them. More than 80 Russian missiles and nearly 700 guided aerial bombs were also used.
Rhetoric does not protect skies. Thoughts… pic.twitter.com/dIgO8ID4NG
— Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) April 14, 2024
Ten Russian Shahed-type drones were shot down over the Kharkiv region overnight, the Ukrainian Air Force said on Sunday.
Meanwhile, shelling in the Russian-occupied Kherson region killed two civilians on Sunday, said Moscow-installed leader Vladimir Saldo.
Ukrainian drones were also reported in Russia’s Krasnodar and Belgorod regions and over the Black Sea, the Russian defence ministry said.
The news came as the Institute for the Study of War (ISW), a Washington-based think tank, warned that delays in Western military assistance would increasingly hamper Ukraine’s ability to push back Russian advances.
With the war in Ukraine entering its third year and a vital US aid package for Kyiv stuck in congress, Russia has used its edge in firepower and personnel to step up attacks across eastern Ukraine.
It has increasingly used satellite-guided gliding bombs – dropped from planes from a safe distance – to pummel Ukrainian forces beset by a shortage of troops and ammunition.
In its report, the ISW said that Russian forces were prioritizing grinding, tactical gains with operational-level efforts focusing on the cities of Lyman, Chasiv Yar, and Pokrovsk.
“The Russian military command likely assesses that Ukrainian forces will be unable to defend against current and future Russian offensive operations due to delays in or the permanent end of US military assistance,” the think tank said.
Ukraine’s military chief, general Oleksandr Syrskyi, said Ukraine’s battlefield situation in the industrial east had “significantly worsened in recent days”, as warming weather allowed Russian forces to launch a fresh push along several stretches of the 620-mile-long front line.
In an update on the Telegram messaging app, Gen Syrskyi said that Russian forces had been “actively attacking” Ukrainian positions near the cities of Lyman, Bakhmut and Pokrovsk, and beginning to launch tank assaults as drier, warmer spring weather made it easier for heavy vehicles to move across previously muddy terrain.
