Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in an interview with a U.S. broadcaster on April 21 that Russia wants to occupy Chasiv Yar in the Donetsk region before May 9, the day that Russia celebrates as Victory Day to mark the defeat of Germany in World War II.
Zelenskiy said on NBC that he expects an influx of weapons will arrive in Ukraine "in time," and its forces will to be able to "repel the enemy, and then defeat the plans of the Russian Federation for full-scale counteroffensive actions in June."
Zelenskiy was interviewed the day after the U.S. House of Representatives finally approved $61 billion in new U.S. aid, giving Ukraine and its soldiers on the battlefield a morale boost just as Russian forces claimed territorial gains near Chasiv Yar.
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'There Is Hope': Ukrainians Welcome Passage Of U.S. Military Aid
Colonel General Oleksandr Syrskiy, commander in chief of Ukraine's armed forces, recently said that top Russian military leaders set the capture of Chasiv Yar as a goal for its troops by May 9.
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Ukrainian forces currently are holding out in the Chasiv Yar area despite a lack the necessary weapons, according to Zelenskiy.
"I was recently in the region. I spoke with the fighters," he said, reiterating their need for equipment "to fight against Russian reconnaissance drones, which are correcting Russia's artillery fire."
Maksym Zhorin, the commander on the front line in the area, told national television on April 21 that all positions around Chasiv Yar were under Ukrainian control.
The Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement on April 21 that Russian forces had taken control of Bohdanivka, located just to the west of the Russian-held city of Bakhmut.
Ukraine has described Bohdanivka as an important post in keeping the Russians from advancing westward through the Donetsk region to the cities of Kramatorsk and Slovyansk.
In its evening report on April 21, the General Staff of the Ukrainian military mentioned the town of Bohdanivka as one of a series of villages where it said Ukrainian forces repelled 13 enemy attacks. It said about 20 settlements in the Donetsk region, including Chasiv Yar, came under artillery and mortar fire.
Ukraine's Defense Ministry denied last week that Russia had captured all of Bohdanivka, while acknowledging it had lost some positions in the village in eastern Donetsk region.
The Ukrainian military also said in its evening report that its forces shot down two Kh-59 cruise missiles and repelled nine attacks in the area of Terna in the Donetsk region.