Chasiv Yar Holds
Read Sarah Ashton-Cirillo's front-line dispatch
Sarah Ashton-Cirillo, an American-born journalist and medic with the Ukrainian territorial forces, just spent a few days in the front-line city of Chasiv Yar, one of two locuses of Russia’s intensifying winter-spring offensive in eastern Ukraine. The other, of course, is Ocheretyne, 25 miles to the south.
Ashton-Cirillo’s dispatch is worth a close read, but I’ll highlight some important points.
Ukrainian defenses are intact
Nearly a month after the Russian army launched its first direct assaults on Chasiv Yar, an industrial city with a pre-war population of 12,000 that straddles a north-south canal a few miles west of Bakhmut, the city holds.
Not only does the city hold—its most vulnerable district, on the eastern side of the canal, also holds.
What’s most remarkable is that the unit that once garrisoned the canal district, the 67th Mechanized Brigade, was disbanded earlier this month after investigators from the defense ministry in Kyiv uncovered deep incompetence in its command staff, which has ties to a far-right political group.
Ukraine’s eastern command clearly was able to rush forces into the canal district to replace the 67th Brigade—and in time to prevent a Russian advance into the district. Ashton-Cirillo visited elements of the 56th and 41st Mechanized Brigades and 5th Assault Brigade.
Contrast this with what happened last week around Ocheretyne, west of Avdiivka. The Russians exploited the confusion resulting from a badly-managed rotation of Ukrainian troops to capture that village and open a salient that threatens Ukrainian positions in the sector.
Ukrainian warplanes are active over Chasiv Yar
“Jets flew over our position from both directions as the small but brave Ukrainian air force made its presence known,” she wrote.
This is news. We knew Russian air force planes—in particular, Sukhoi Su-25 attack jets—had been ranging over Chasiv Yar, their pilots practically taunting the Ukrainian brigades on the ground.
Fearing Ukrainian air-defenses, Russian pilots normally would keep miles away from any fortified city. But Ukraine ran low on air-defenses earlier this month—and for obvious reasons.
Ukraine gets many of its best air-defense munitions from the United States, but U.S. supplies all but ran out in late December as pro-Russia Republicans in the U.S. Congress successfully blocked legislation approving additional aid.
It’s possible the Ukrainian pilots Ashton-Cirillo observed were risking Russian air-defenses in order to stiffen the Ukrainian defenses over Chasiv Yar. It also is possible the pilots were flying attack missions in support of the city’s garrison.
Aid legislation finally passed the U.S. Congress last Tuesday. The first new aid package, which the Pentagon announced on Wednesday, includes additional Stinger air-defense missiles. Help is coming for those Ukrainian pilots flying over Chasiv Yar.
Ukrainian troops are convoying with radio-jammers
“A Humvee and a truck with a personal [electronic-warfare] defense system protruding from its roof comprised our caravan provided by a recon squad from the 41st Brigade into Chasiv Yar,” Ashton-Cirillo wrote.
Best guess is the jammer was a $50,000 Bukovel. A very effective system that has helped to suppress Russia’s drones all along the 600-mile front line.
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