“The situation at the front has further deteriorated,” Ukrainian commander-in-chief Oleksandr Syrsky wrote on Telegram on Sunday. He spoke of Russian attacks ‘along the entire front line’, with ‘a lot of men and equipment’. In the north and south, the Ukrainians managed to repel the attacks, but in the east, west of Avdiivka, captured by the Russians in February, the situation proved untenable.
The Russians advanced ten kilometers there in a short time and captured several villages. “To spare the lives and health of our defenders, our units have withdrawn to new front lines further west,” Syrsky said.
It is a difficult moment in trench warfare: when you have to give up your trenches and build new ones.
That is what the Ukrainians are doing not only in the east. Across the board, they are rushing to build new barriers in the hope that they will hold if the Russians push through.
This desperate defense is a direct result of the lack of Western support for months. Due to a lack of artillery shells, the Ukrainian howitzers are on rationing, and the Russian tanks and armored infantry vehicles can advance almost unhindered to the Ukrainian trenches in many places.
The first 155mm grenades that the Czech Republic has purchased from several other countries will probably not arrive until May. The American grenades, part of the support package approved last week, will also have to wait a while.
In the meantime, Ukrainian cities are being intensively bombarded by a mix of Russian drones and various types of missiles, against which they are increasingly unable to defend themselves. The lack of equipment, in this case air defense batteries and associated missiles, is also taking its revenge on this front.
It remains disappointing how slowly European countries operate in this regard. There are Patriot batteries available here, which the Ukrainians could put to good use. For months, various countries pointed to a NATO requirement that prohibits weakening their own air defenses too much. But since NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg said a week and a half ago that he would drop that requirement (“that’s a risk we have to take”), no country other than Germany has pledged new Patriots.
The Netherlands is also reluctant to do so. The government has promised new money, but no air defense equipment. Last year, the Netherlands delivered two launchers (part of a whole battery of six launchers, radar, fire control, missiles), but the four complete batteries that the army has are still waiting idly until war breaks out here too.
That is a short-sighted view of tasks. Europe is now under attack. Europe is now defending itself. An extra Patriot battery (Ukraine thinks it needs ten) could make a difference.
Even then, the fortunes on the battlefield will not change in the coming weeks, and one can only hope that the new lines will hold. Slowness has a price.
The newspaper’s position is expressed in the Volkskrant Commentary. It is the result of a discussion between the commentators and the editor-in-chief.
