Russian troops advance in eastern Ukraine

Russian troops are making significant gains in Ukraine's eastern region near the Russian-occupied industrial town of Avdiivka, Ukraine's commander-in-chief, Oleksandr Syrskyi said Saturday on his Telegram channel.

"The situation on the eastern front has deteriorated significantly in recent days," said Syrskyi, adding that the Russian army intensified its offensive along several stretches of the more 1,000 kilometer-long front line after the presidential elections in Russia last month.
Warmer, drier weather also is playing a factor in Russia's surging offensive, allowing its heavy vehicles to move more quickly across the drying terrain.

Russia's defense ministry announced its troops had "liberated" the village of Pervomaiske in the Donetsk region, about 11 kilometers west of the largely destroyed town of Avdiivka, which was captured by Russia in mid-February.

Ukraine has not confirmed the loss of Pervomaiske, and its army asserted Friday that it had repelled attacks on the village.

In a Telegram update Saturday, the Russian military said Moscow's forces also had taken Bohdanivka, another eastern village close to the city of Bakhmut — known for its bloody siege and subsequent capture by Russian forces nine months ago.

Shortly afterward, Ukraine's Defense Ministry denied that Bohdanivka had been captured and said "intense fighting" there is ongoing.

Ukraine has also said the situation around the eastern front-line city of Chasiv Yar, west of Bakhmut, remains "difficult and tense" with the area under "constant fire."

Syrskyi acknowledged that Russian forces have been "actively attacking" Ukrainian positions in three areas of the eastern Donetsk region, near the cities of Lyman, Bakhmut and Pokrovsk. He said Ukraine was planning to "strengthen the most problematic defense areas with electronic warfare and air defense."

Russia has an advantage in firepower and personnel over Ukraine, which is running low on ammunition, to increase attacks across eastern Ukraine. Additionally, Russian forces are increasingly using satellite-guided gliding bombs that allow planes to drop them from a safe distance and overwhelm Ukrainian forces.

Germany to deliver Patriot system

As Kyiv awaits the desperately needed U.S. aid that is stuck in Congress, Germany announced Saturday it would deliver a Patriot air defense system to Ukraine, its third so far, citing "massive and ongoing Russian airstrikes."

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy thanked German Chancellor Olaf Scholz for "a real manifestation of support for Ukraine at a critical time for us."

The German chancellor said in a post on X, formerly Twitter, that he had discussed the "massive" Russian air attacks on civilian energy infrastructure with Zelenskyy on Saturday, and he said Berlin will "stand unbreakably by Ukraine's side."

The Ukrainian military also is hampered by the lack of adequate training it requires to improve its capabilities of operating "military equipment and western weapons," Syrskyi noted.

Ukraine's European allies are engaged in a training push for Kyiv's forces.

French Defense Minister Sebastien Lecornu said Friday that future Ukrainian fighter pilots likely to fly American F-16 aircraft were receiving their initial training in the south of France.

Other countries including the Netherlands, Denmark and Romania are helping Ukraine to train its pilots.

Some Ukrainians, after receiving initial training in Britain, are now undergoing "advanced training" in an undisclosed location to learn how to fly fighter jets, according to a military source.

Russian missiles batter infrastructure

Russian missiles and drones Thursday struck infrastructure and power facilities across Ukraine, leaving hundreds of thousands of homes without power, in what Ukraine's private energy operator DTEK called one of the most powerful attacks this year.

Russian President Vladimir Putin described the strikes as retribution for Ukrainian attacks on Russia's energy infrastructure after a slew of Ukrainian drone strikes over the past few months hit oil refineries deep inside Russia.

In the southern Zaporizhzhia region, Russia accused Ukraine on Saturday of killing 10 people by shelling the occupied town of Tokmak, a town captured by Russia in the beginning of the invasion.

Ukrainian authorities in Zaporizhzhia said Russia had struck the region more than 400 times over the last day, including from planes.

Russian casualties include tanks, says media

The independent Russian media outlet Mediazona reports that an estimated 50,000 military personnel have lost their lives since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine more than two years ago. The outlet says tens of thousands more are believed to have died, making the troop-casualty figure likely closer to 85,000.

Mediazona, which tracks Russian war casualties with the BBC based on deaths recorded by open sources, said in its latest update that 50,471 members of the Russian military had died in the war since it began in February 2022.

The outlet also said Russia had lost a large number of tanks, armored personnel carriers, and artillery units in recent weeks, although casualties from those losses were not included in the updated figures.

RFE/RL cited Mediazona as saying that Russia loses about 1,200 soldiers weekly.

Some information for this report was provided by Reuters, The Associated Press and Agence France-Presse.