Ukraine’s more liberal use of allied weapons complicates Russian logistics

But observers say Ukraine needs a completely free hand to strike Russian soil if it is to win the war.

Russia has failed to make any significant gains in its war in Ukraine during the past week, and suffered a number of setbacks on its own soil, in occupied Crimea and occupied Georgia.

At the same time, Russia sought to project power far beyond its borders, sending a flotilla to Cuba, which conducted missile drills along the way and threatened to disseminate long-range weapons to Western adversaries.

On the ground, Russia’s incursion in Ukraine’s northern Kharkiv region appeared to have stalled, as forces spearheading two separate initiatives in Vovchansk and north of Lyptsi made no new gains.

Ukrainian military officials have described that May 10 incursion as an effort to distract their forces from the defence of Chasiv Yar, a key settlement in Donetsk, on the eastern front. Here, Russian forces did make constant incremental gains throughout the past week, but the Khortytsia Group of forces defending this position said Russian forces were not operating inside Chasiv Yar.

Visual evidence suggested Russian forces were still 700-800 metres east of the Siverskyi Donets-Donbas Canal, a waterway that runs around the eastern edge of Chasiv Yar.