{"id":73369,"date":"2022-06-08T17:08:15","date_gmt":"2022-06-08T17:08:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/navytimes\/uncategorized\/2022\/06\/08\/as-russians-advance-in-donbas-invasion-success-hangs-in-the-balance\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T14:25:03","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T14:25:03","slug":"as-russians-advance-in-donbas-invasion-success-hangs-in-the-balance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/navytimes\/flashpoints\/2022\/06\/08\/as-russians-advance-in-donbas-invasion-success-hangs-in-the-balance\/","title":{"rendered":"As Russians advance in Donbas, invasion success hangs in the balance"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

KRAMATORSK, Ukraine \u2014 The fight for Ukraine\u2019s Luhansk and Donetsk Oblasts hangs on a knife-edge \u2014 and the outcome may decide the future of the Donbas for years to come.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Driven from Kyiv, the Ukrainian capital, pushed back behind the border around Kharkiv in the east, and fought to a standstill outside Ukraine\u2019s Black Sea port city, Odesa, mauled Russian troops have regrouped around Donbas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Units cobbled together from the surviving remainders of other theaters, backed up by some of Russia\u2019s newest military hardware, are attempting to capture the entirety of Ukraine\u2019s eastern Donetsk and Luhansk Oblasts \u2014 two coal and mineral-rich provinces that together form the Donbas region. If successful, Russia would control virtually all of Luhansk and Donetsk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ukrainian infantry officers on the ground offer frank and unfiltered accounts that paint a vivid picture of the situation. Taking cover in a ditch at the side of a road near Bakhmut in Donetsk and mere kilometers from the front line, Yuri, a gray-bearded Ukrainian officer, explained that it has been a \u201ctough\u201d fight closer to the front.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe Russians hit us with cluster munitions, phosphorus,\u201d Yuri explained, rubbing his chin in grim contemplation. Outgoing Ukrainian mortars boomed nearby from behind a thickly wooded area, and the crash of incoming Russian artillery exploded in a field opposite the road.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Militaries use white phosphorus to illuminate battlefields and create smoke screens, though deliberately using its toxic properties against people could breach the Chemical Weapons Convention<\/a>. Ukraine has previously accused Russian forces of using the substance against civilians<\/a>, but those accusations have been difficult to verify.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This war \u201cis not like 2014; it\u2019s like 1941. It\u2019s a war of vehicles,\u201d Yuri explained. He estimated an armored vehicle\u2019s lifespan in the war at about two weeks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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An injured Ukrainian servicemen is transferred to a medical facility after getting an emergency medical treatment in the Donetsk region, eastern Ukraine, Tuesday, June 7, 2022. (AP Photo\/Bernat Armangue)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In addition to indiscriminate and constant artillery barrages, Yuri\u2019s men must contend with Russian helicopters, which they see \u201cevery day.\u201d Yuri explained that \u201cwe do manage to shoot some of the helicopters down,\u201d adding that he and his men have been at or near the front for forty days. \u201cThe Javelins are good, but we need more tanks.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Tuesday that his forces remain set on recapturing all occupied territories, even though it appears increasingly difficult to do so. At the moment, the Ukrainians are struggling to push Russia back at Severodonetsk and around Sloviansk. U.S. President Joe Biden and his senior officials have maintained that it\u2019s up to Ukraine to decide when to stop fighting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s their territory. I\u2019m not going to tell them what they should and shouldn\u2019t do,\u201d Biden said June 3. \u201cBut it appears to me that, at some point along the line, there\u2019s going to have to be a negotiated settlement here. And what that entails, I don\u2019t know.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\t