Ukrainian And Russian Troops Fiercely Struggle For Territory In The East, Advisor To President Zelensky: Will Not Determine The Outcome Of War

Illustration of Russian soldiers in Ukraine. (Wikimedia Commons/Mil.ru)

JAKARTA - Ukrainian authorities say they have been "forced to surrender" some territory in the east of the country in the face of a Russian attack on Thursday.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy this week described the pressure his armed forces are experiencing in the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine as 'Hell'.

He spoke of heavy fighting around the town of Avdiivka and the fortified village of Pisky, where Kyiv has acknowledged the "partial success" of the Russian enemy in recent days.

Ukraine's military said on Thursday that Russian forces had carried out at least two attacks on Pisky but that its forces had managed to repel them.

Ukraine has spent the last eight years strengthening its defensive positions at Pisky, seeing it as a buffer zone against Russian-backed forces who hold the city of Donetsk about 10 km (6 miles) to the southeast.

Ukraine says Russia's offensive in the east looks like an attempt to force it to divert troops from the south where Kyiv forces are trying to retake territory and destroy Russian supply lines as a prelude to a wider counter-offensive.

"The idea is to put military pressure on us in Kharkiv, Donetsk, and Lugansk over the next few weeks. What happens in the east is not what will determine the outcome of the war," Ukrainian presidential adviser Oleksiy Arestovych said in a statement.

General Oleksiy Gromov told a news conference Ukrainian forces had recaptured two villages around the eastern city of Sloviansk, but had been pushed back to the suburb of Avdiivka after being forced to abandon a coal mine seen as a key defensive position.

He also said Russia might launch its own offensive in the Kherson region of southern Ukraine to try to win back war momentum after building up its strength there.

Meanwhile, the Russian Ministry of Defense confirmed the attack. It said its forces had inflicted heavy losses on Ukrainian troops in the vicinity of Avdiivka and two other locations in Donetsk province, forcing Kyiv mechanized infantry and mechanized units to withdraw. Reuters could not immediately verify the statements of the two sides.

Video footage released by the Russian Ministry of Defense shows Russian rocket launchers in action and tanks advancing and firing at speed across open terrain. It is not clear where they were filmed.

Some unverified reports suggest Russian-backed forces have reached the outskirts of Pisky. Equipped with advanced weapons by the West, Ukraine has attacked Russian-backed forces in the area as well.

Russia, which denies deliberately attacking civilians, says it plans to take full control of the wider Donetsk province, one of the two that make up the Donbas industrial region, as part of what it calls a "special military operation" to keep it safe from attacks. What they called the expansion of NATO is unjustified.