Russia said on Sunday its forces had advanced towards the town of Chasiv Yar in eastern Ukraine and seized control of the settlement of Bohdanivka, as Kyiv said it urgently needed promised US support to fend off a full-scale offensive.

“Units of the Southern grouping group of forces have fully liberated the settlement of Bohdanivka … and have improved the situation along the frontline,” Russia’s defence ministry wrote on Telegram.

Control of Bohdanivka, located just to the west of the Russian-held city of Bakhmut, has been in doubt for some time.

The village lies 5km east of Chasiv Yar, a heavily fortified hilltop town and forward artillery base for the Ukrainian army, providing protection for some of the area’s largest cities, including Kramatorsk and Slaviansk.

The Russian report could not be independently verified and there was no comment from Ukraine regarding Bohdanivka.

It came as Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said that Ukraine was preparing for a major push from the Russians, reiterating warnings from his army chief Oleksandr Syrskyi that Russia aims to capture Chasiv Yar by 9 May, one of Russia’s largest public holidays and which marks Moscow’s victory over Nazi forces in the second world war.

A Ukrainian serviceman walks at a frontline in the Donetsk region of Ukraine. Photograph: Oleksandr Ratushniak/Reuters

In other developments:

Volodymyr Zelenskiy urged the US Senate to rapidly ratify the long-delayed military aid package passed by Congress over the weekend, warning that his country was preparing its defences amid fears there could be a large Russian offensive before the fresh supplies reach the frontline. “We really need to get this to the final point. We need to get it approved by the Senate … so that we get some tangible assistance for the soldiers on the frontline as soon as possible, not in another six months,” he said. “I hope we will be able to stay, and the weapons will come on time, and we will repel the enemy, and then we’ll break the plans of the Russian Federation with regards to this full-scale offensive,” Zelenskiy added.
In the interview with US television network NBC, he also said that Saturday’s vote showed Ukraine would not be “a second Afghanistan”, whose pro-western government collapsed during an US-led pull out in the summer of 2021. Zelenskiy said his immediate priorities were air-defence systems such as the US-made Patriots and long-range missiles such as Atacms, which can travel up to 186 miles (300km) and which the House has called on the Pentagon to provide promptly.
Nato’s secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, said the delay in US military assistance for Ukraine had “real consequences” on the battlefield, but said Kyiv will “prevail” as long as they are equipped with the weapons they need to fend off the Russian invasion. In an interview with MSNBC, he said: “The Ukrainians have now, for months, been outgunned, roughly one to five, one to 10, depending on what part of the frontline you are talking about.” He added: “We have seen that fewer Russian missiles and drones have been shot down simply because they lack air defence systems and also ammunition.”
The EU’s next package of sanctions should include steps against a shadow fleet of tankers moving Russian oil to circumvent sanctions, Sweden’s foreign minister, Tobias Billstrom, said ahead of a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Luxembourg.
“Adopting the 14th sanctions package is one of the most important things,” Billstrom said as he arrived at the meeting. “We will see to it that we both include an import ban on liquefied natural gas as well as measures to curb the Russian shadow fleet.”
Ukrainian air defence units destroyed 5 of the 7 Shahed-type drones and one Orlan-10 reconnaissance drone that Russia launched overnight, the air force said on Monday. The drones were reportedly launched from Cape Chauda in occupied Crimea.

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Россия Военные Действия

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