Ukraine Retreats in Critical Fortress City As Battle Rages

Ukrainian forces have pulled back from part of a key contested town close to the Russian-controlled eastern city of Bakhmut, according to Kyiv, as Ukrainian troops secure "marginal gains" along the northern border with Russia.

Kyiv's troops have withdrawn from a neighborhood on the eastern outskirts of Chasiv Yar, a Donetsk town on the front lines close to the devastated city of Bakhmut, Nazar Voloshyn, a spokesperson for Ukraine's Khortytsia grouping of forces operating in the area, told Ukrainian news on Thursday.

Ukrainian fighters withdrew to better-protected positions in the town, Voloshyn said.

Chasiv Yar sits immediately west of Bakhmut, which Russian forces captured in May 2023 after months of bitter and bloody fighting. Should Moscow seize Chasiv Yar, the Kremlin would be able to more effectively attack Ukraine's key defensive cities currently west of the front lines, like Sloviansk, Kramatorsk and Kostiantynivka.

Ukraine's armed forces have long said Russia hopes to take control of Chasiv Yar, with intense clashes regularly reported to the east of the town.

Russian forces recently advanced within eastern Chasiv Yar, the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) think tank said on Wednesday. Russia will likely start to attack into central Chasiv Yar "if they have not already," the think tank added.

On Thursday morning local time, Ukraine's military said its forces had "stopped" eight Russian attacks in the area west of Bakhmut, including around the village of Klishchiivka—southwest of Bakhmut—Ivanivske, which sits northwest of Klishchiivka, and Chasiv Yar.

Russia is increasingly attacking close to Toretsk, a town southwest of Bakhmut, the military said in an operational update. Toretsk is linked directly by road to Kostyantynivka, as is Bakhmut.

Russia's Defense Ministry said on Thursday that its forces had targeted several Ukrainian brigades in locations close to Bakhmut, including Chasiv Yar.

Although Ukraine has consistently reported the heaviest clashes to be in Donetsk, particularly west of Bakhmut and west of Avdiivka, which Russia captured earlier this year, Russia has maintained attacks further north after launching a cross-border offensive from its Belgorod region into Kharkiv in early May.

Russia quickly gained a smattering of settlements along the border, including around the Kharkiv border city of Vovchansk. Moscow also seized territory northeast of Ukraine's second city, Kharkiv, while Kyiv warned that Moscow hoped to force Ukraine to reallocate its scarce resources from the eastern front to the north in Kharkiv.

Ukrainian forces "made marginal gains" within central Vovchansk, the ISW assessed on Wednesday.

Further south, Kyiv's troops recently advanced close to the Russian-controlled eastern Ukrainian city of Kreminna, the ISW evaluated. Footage geolocated to the area indicates Ukraine advanced close to Novoyehorivka, a Luhansk village northwest of Kreminna, as well as east of the contested settlement of Terny, the think tank said. Terny sits southwest of Kreminna over the border into the Donetsk region.

Kyiv also advanced south of Kreminna, the ISW said, while adding Russian forces pushed west into Ukrainian-held territory west of Svatove, which is under Moscow's control.

However, Moscow has taken territory west of Donetsk City, the Russian-controlled regional capital of the Donetsk region, the think tank said. Moscow has steadily made gains west of Avdiivka, which sits on the northwestern edge of Donetsk City, since the Kremlin captured the city in February this year.

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