Ukrainian forces suffered considerable territorial losses over the weekend despite receiving a large military aid package from the U.S. in April, according to The New York Times.
From Friday to Sunday, Russian forces captured more square miles per day than they have at nearly any point of the war other than its earliest days, taking nine villages in Ukraine’s north while defending fighters fell back, according to the Times. The Russians’ advances came just weeks after Congress approved a $61 billion infusion of military aid for the Ukrainian forces on April 21, proponents of which argued that the aid was essential for Ukraine to withstand the invasion.
“The first line of fortifications and mines just didn’t exist,” Denys Yaroslavsky, a Ukrainian reconnaissance commander, wrote in a post on Facebook. “The enemy freely entered the gray area, across the border line, which in principle should not have been gray!”
Biden signs the $95 billion aid package for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan. pic.twitter.com/jKVslCj4kI
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The $61 billion aid package passed in April contained funding for weapons, arms purchases, training and more, according to the Center for Strategic International Studies. That round of funding supplemented four earlier aid packages, bringing the topline number of U.S. aid sent to Ukraine since the war’s outbreak to $175 billion, according to the Council on Foreign Relations.
While it is currently unclear if the Russian advances are a minor and isolated development or the start of a sustained period of greater success, the exhaustion of many Ukrainian soldiers on the front, limited amounts of ammunition and dwindling manpower could combine to cause serious problems for the Ukrainian army, according to the Times. Thousands of civilians have fled their homes to take shelter in Kharkiv, the largest city in the region where the Russians had success over the weekend.
Russian forces are beginning to reach or attack towns and villages outside of Kharkiv, according to the Times. It is possible that the Russians are pressing on in the Kharkiv region to divert Ukrainian troops, attention and resources away from other areas in hopes of creating conditions for a wider breakthrough.
“The Russians have understood, just as a lot of analysts have, that the major disadvantage that Ukraine is currently suffering from is manpower,” Franz-Stefan Gady, a military analyst based in Austria, told the Times. “By thinning out the front line, you are increasing the odds of a breakthrough.”
To date, the war has claimed hundreds of thousands of lives, but the front lines of the conflict have not moved much in recent months, according to the Times. Manpower is becoming a problem for Ukraine, which has a much smaller population than Russia and is starting to mobilize convicts to join the fight despite criticizing Russia for doing the same earlier in the conflict.
The State Department did not respond immediately to requests for comment.
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Republished with permission from Daily Caller News Foundation
