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Over 200 Civilians Still in Ukraine’s Frontline Chasiv Yar: Army

More than 200 Ukrainian civilians, many of them vulnerable, are still in the frontline stronghold of Chasiv Yar under heavy Russian assault, a military spokesman told AFP Tuesday.

The strategically important military hub in the eastern Donetsk region has been under attack since 2022 and its buildings have been largely destroyed.

“According to the military administration, there are 229 people” living in the town, Dmytro Zaporozhets, spokesman for the “Lugansk” group of forces, said in an interview.

“The vast majority of them are elderly people, people with disabilities, and those who care for them,” he said.

Before the start of the full-scale invasion, Chasiv Yar was home to some 12,000 people.

It is no longer possible for the Ukrainian military administration to organise shelters or distribute food to the remaining residents, Zaporozhets said, due to “the active hostilities” and “the use of drones by the enemy“.

“It is unclear how these people exist now,” Zaporozhets added.

“The only thing we can observe is that the weather conditions — the absence of severe frosts — allow people to survive in these conditions.”

Russian soldiers in Ukraine
A woman holding a child walks past Russian soldiers in a street of Mariupol. Photo: Alexander Nemenov/AFP

Chasiv Yar would be a major prize for Russia’s military because it lies near the larger towns of Kostyantynivka and Kramatorsk, which are also important bases for the Ukrainian military.

Ukraine still controls a former brick factory in Chasiv Yar, after a recent attempted Russian assault failed, the spokesman said, but Moscow’s troops are “moving in the direction of the factory”.

Russian forces are moving rapidly within the largely destroyed town, using “small assault groups of three to eight people”, Zaporozhets said, calling this tactic “effective”.

“This tactic brings them success, because dispersed small assault groups are harder to deal with all the time,” he said.

“It is harder to control these three to four people, as they are constantly moving, running away, and so on.”

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