Ukraine sacks commander as Russia advances on key logistics hub

Keep knowledgeable with free updates

Merely signal as much as the Battle in Ukraine myFT Digest — delivered on to your inbox.

Ukraine’s army management has fired the commander who oversaw its operations within the japanese Donetsk area, the place Kyiv’s defences are buckling as Russia pushes in the direction of a key logistics hub.

A Ukrainian official confirmed to the Monetary Instances on Friday that Oleksandr Lutsenko had been faraway from his place as commander of the Donetsk operational and tactical group.

Ukraine’s forces, below Lutsenko’s command, had did not cease Russia’s sweeping offensive that has taken an space roughly half the scale of London in simply the previous month. The official stated Lutsenko can be given one other publish within the military’s floor forces. He has been changed by Brigadier Common Oleksandr Tarnavskyi.

Earlier on Friday Ukraine’s prime common, Oleksandr Syrsky, stated from a command centre close to the town of Pokrovsk — the guts of the japanese Donetsk operation and a key logistical hub for the military — that battles have been raging in opposition to a Russian military “superior . . . primarily in manpower”.

“The battles are extraordinarily powerful,” Syrsky stated. “The Russians are throwing all obtainable forces ahead, making an attempt to interrupt by the defence of our troops.”

Deep State, a Ukrainian war-tracking group near the defence ministry, stated Ukrainian troops defending 4 villages south of Pokrovsk have been below menace of encirclement, with Russian forces attacking “from all sides”.

Ukraine’s largest steelmaker, Metinvest, additionally introduced the suspension of operations on the solely mine producing coking coal within the nation after Russian forces pushed to inside 2km of the location close to Pokrovsk, in response to an organization memo.

The mine produced round half of Metinvest’s whole Ukrainian coal extraction volumes and is a supply of the kind of coal wanted to supply coke, which is important for metal manufacturing. Metinvest stated it had evacuated core personnel and their members of the family from the location.

Russian forces have just lately been advancing at their quickest tempo since 2022 and their present focus is Pokrovsk, in addition to the important thing cities of Kurakhove and Velyka Novosilka to the south. The realm is close to three main highways that run to the Dnipropetrovsk area and the town of Dnipro, which is essential to the Ukrainian army’s operations throughout a lot of the 1,000km frontline.

Underscoring the dire scenario dealing with Ukraine’s military on the japanese entrance, Syrsky warned that he must quickly resort to creating “non-standard choices to extend the steadiness of the defence and extra successfully destroy the occupiers”.

He didn’t elaborate on what these measures can be. However Syrsky, who designed Kyiv’s controversial incursion in Russia’s Kursk area in August and profitable counteroffensive in Kharkiv in 2022, is understood for taking dangers to attempt to disrupt his enemy’s plans and shift the momentum on the battlefield.

Ukraine’s largest problem is manpower, in response to analysts. Its skilled troops are being killed or wounded, whereas a mobilisation effort has largely faltered. The typical age of a Ukrainian soldier is round 45, with many new draftees in poor bodily form.

Russian forces enormously outnumber the Ukrainian troops, regardless of taking heavier casualties on the frontline. Commanders in Donetsk area informed the FT that their troopers have been typically outnumbered 8/1.

The US has urged Zelenskyy to scale back the army recruitment age from 25 to 18 to deal with the manpower scarcity that has weakened its battlefield place and contributed to Russia’s sweeping positive factors. However he has pushed again strongly in opposition to that recommendation and sought to shift the blame on to delays within the provide of western weaponry.

“Let there be no hypothesis — our state just isn’t getting ready to decrease the mobilisation age,” Zelenskyy informed parliament final month.

Extra reporting by Henry Foy in Brussels