Bogdanivka is located near the strategic stronghold of Chasiv Yar, a significant crossroads in the eastern Donetsk region, which the Kremlin aims to capture by May 9, the date commemorating the victory over Nazi Germany.
(DW) The Russian Army announced on Sunday (21/04) the seizure of the village of Bogdanivka, located less than three kilometers from the strategic stronghold of Chasiv Yar, an important crossroads in the Ukrainian region of Donetsk.
The announcement exposes the pressure Kiev is under amid a shortage of ammunition, a day after the US House of Representatives approved, after months of deadlock, a long-awaited aid package to Ukraine worth 61 billion dollars.
According to the Russian Defense Ministry, units of the Southern Grouping took full control of the village on Sunday, which before the war was inhabited by less than a hundred people.
In addition, Russian soldiers repelled two counterattacks by the Ukrainian Army’s 93rd Mechanized Brigade and improved their positions in the direction of Chasiv Yar, the source said.
Moscow’s main target
Ukraine had warned in recent weeks that this fortress, defended by the 41st Mechanized Brigade, was Moscow’s main target in its current offensive in the heart of Donbass.
For this reason, Ukrainian President Volodimir Zelenski spoke personally with the troops on Friday at Chasiv Yar, a fortress that Moscow hopes to conquer by May 9, the anniversary of the victory over Nazi Germany.
The capture of the crossroads would pave the way for a Russian assault on the main Ukrainian military center in Donbass, Kramatorsk, and the city of Sloviansk, where the pro-Russian uprising broke out in 2014.
The Russian army launched a frontline offensive in October 2023 that allowed it to recapture several Ukrainian strongholds, including Avdivka, a town on the outskirts of the city of Donetsk.
However, the Russians were unable to recover the territory in the north-east of Kharkiv, which they controlled between February and September 2022, in order to create a security belt and reduce enemy attacks and incursions against the Belgorod border region.
md (EFE, AFP) *** Translated by DCPFYI t ***