Ukraine retreats from part of strategic town as Russia advances

Ukrainian forces withdrew from a section of an embattled town in the eastern Donetsk region, a retreat from part of a strategic position that signaled a setback in the struggle to hold off Russia’s advance.

Military commanders ordered troops to pull out of a district in the town of Chasiv Yar after positions were destroyed, making them too dangerous to defend, Nazar Voloshyn, a Ukrainian military spokesman, said in televised comments Thursday.

Kyiv’s troops have sought to hold the town, some 55 kilometers (34 miles) north of the Russia-occupied city of Donetsk, after Kremlin’s forces seized the nearby Bakhmut stronghold last year. Chasiv Yar is positioned on a hill, providing higher ground for artillery attacks.

Russian forces are pressing ahead in attacks on Ukrainian positions along the front as President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in an interview Wednesday that deliveries of Western equipment are still taking too long to reach the battlefield.

Russia also advanced near Toretsk, more than 20 kilometers to the south from Chasiv Yar, according to the Washington-based Institute for the Study of War. There, Kremlin troops are seeking to gain control over a main road used by Ukrainian troops for supplies.