dpa
Kiev
Ukraine’s eastern front near Donetsk has effectively collapsed as troops suffer from exhaustion, a Ukrainian general said, as Russia took another town in the region and began a strategic nuclear drill.
Major General Dmytro Marchenko, who gained a name for himself with the successful defence of Mykolaiv and Kherson in southern Ukraine at the start of the war, made the remarks in an interview with a former parliamentary deputy.
“We all know that I’m not revealing any military secrets when I say that our front has collapsed,” Marchenko said in the interview published late on Monday. Marchenko attributed the situation to a lack of arms and ammunition and to a lack of troops. “The soldiers are tired. They cannot cover the front line where they are stationed,” he said. Poor leadership was also to blame, he said. The Russian advance seemed to be continuing in the area. Marchenko said in the interview that Russian troops had entered the town of Selydove to the west of Donetsk city and would soon take it completely, he said.
On Tuesday afternoon, the Russian Defence Ministry said the town had fallen to Russian forces.
Russia has begun another exercise of its strategic nuclear arsenal on the orders of President Vladimir Putin, the Kremlin announced on Tuesday.
Putin followed the “strategic deterrence” drills by video link, the Kremlin said.
Military officials said the exercises featured submarines and missile-carrying bombers. An intercontinental ballistic missile was also test-launched.
