Bloody Battle in Chasiv Yar: Thousands of Lives at Stake in the Ongoing Siege by Russian Forces

Bakhmut. Avidivka. The names of Ukrainian losses are still fresh in my memory. Bloody battles cost thousands of lives on both sides and jokes in memory of those during the Great War. But it is not enough for the Tsar. Now in the sights of Vladimir Putin is Chasiv Yar.

Strategic, important, with its colorful houses, the smell of wisteria in spring and the deep snow in winter that bends the tree branches on the paths, the main square with the Palace of Culture and the monument to those who fell in World War II, for over a month this town has been occupied by 20 thousand Russian soldiers at its gateswhich is constantly pressing and exploding.

Iron​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​ “Chasiv Yar” means “calm water”, the name was given to him by the Turks who founded settlements in the old days «in the basin of Don and Siverskyi Donetsk», Igor said while the bombs were falling over our heads. A year has passed. Who knows if Igor is still alive and still going on his bike to give cigarettes to the soldiers. And who knows how long Chasiv Yar can resist. Among the few in Ukraine who have the privilege of being on high groundprotected to the east by the Siverskyi Donets-Donbas canal, at the time called Hruzke or Pleshcheieve, founded in 1876, by a Russian nobleman who built a clay construction plant here.

Fast forward to 1938, when Khasiv Yar was granted city status during the Soviet era, and to World War II, when the Germans occupied it from 1941 to 1943. Now he has been under siege for a month. But the Russians have been torturing him since the summer of 2022. First to drive Kiev’s forces away from Bakhmut, and today because – explain Ukrainian intelligence sources to Messenger — «Putin wants a military victory on the anniversary of Russia’s victory over Nazi fascism, May 9″. The Kremlin’s aim is to raise the Russian flag on the monument to those who fell in World War II and thus to give to the greedy propaganda machine But not only. Prendere Chasiv Yar per Mosca means aprirsi la strada per Kostiantynivka, Druzhkivka, Sloviansk. And above all, Kramatorsk, the main railway station of the Donbassimportant for the supply of weapons and raw materials.

Time is a tyrant to those who attack. According to the Institute for the Study of War, the Russians are trying «to take advantage of the window of time before military support arrives unhindered by the vote in Congress.” Bolstered by superfire​​​​(10 to 1 ratio at present), beyond supply shortages, the Russians also try to accelerate the Ukrainian numerical decline. “The situation of our soldiers has worsened, while the Russian armed forces are achieving tactical successes in various areas”, admitted the commander of the Kiev army Oleksandr Syrsky, explaining that Russia is “attacking the entire front line continuously and successfully. ” Syrsky, the same general accused of causing too many young people to die in Bakhmut and withdrawing from Avdiivka only for political calculations. Chasiv Yar, however, is no easy prey. Since 2014 it has been under the control of Kiev. “Ukrainian fortifications, the terrain and the waterway limit how mechanized units can be used,” the source continues. To take it, therefore, 20 thousand men is not enough. double that,” he concludes. And even if it is not a big problem for a regime to find more “human material” to sacrifice, after three years it becomes complicated for it Putin too.

Looking at Chasiv Yar one might think that whatever happens, it is unlikely to return to being a “still water”. 80 percent of the buildings are damaged. There are very few civilians left now. Of the 12 thousand, today there are 700 according to Serhii Chaus, the head of the city’s military administration, who became mayor after fleeing his predecessor who fled after an attack of Russia. The only ones left are the old people and the soldiers who die by the dozens every day in the stable points for the wounded. All the children were evacuated. And among the tree-lined avenues you can no longer hear laughter. And the sky of Chasiv Yar is now nothing but the sound of Russian bombs.