Ukrainian armoured military vehicles drive on a road in Kostyantynivka, Donetsk region, on June 20, 2024, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. (Photo by Roman PILIPEY / AFP)
Kyiv, Ukraine: Ukraine has said is dispatching reinforcements to an embattled strategic hilltop town in the eastern Donetsk region, a vital flashpoint whose capture could accelerate Russian advances deeper in the industrial territory.
Donetsk has borne the brunt of fighting since Russian forces invaded in February 2022, and Ukrainian forces are struggling to hold the line there against better-resourced Russian forces.
"Units of the 24th Mechanized Brigade have been redeployed to strengthen the defence of the Chasiv Yar sector," the grouping said in a statement late Thursday.
"The situation in and around the town is extremely difficult. The enemy is constantly organising massive frontal assaults, and also trying to bypass the settlement from the north and south," it added.
The unit had been deployed near the town of Toretsk, another frontline region where Russian forces have gained ground after a lull in fighting there, according to military bloggers.
Chasiv Yar, which had a pre-war population of around 12,000 people, sits above nearby civilian hubs of Kramatorsk and Kostiantynivka.
The Ukrainian military says it has been persistently targeted by Russian air strikes, and recently released drone footage from the town shows rows of bombed-out and smouldering Soviet-era housing blocs.
Separately, authorities in the frontline town of Selydove further south in the Donetsk region said two people had been killed and three more were wounded in a Russian airstrike.
"The best thing to do is to evacuate and not endanger your own life and health," the regional governor said in a statement online announcing the attack.
The Kremlin said in late 2022 that it had annexed Donetsk.
