In Ukraine, the army has pulled back from a district in the outskirts of Chasiv Yar, a crucial town in the eastern Donetsk region that has suffered extensive damage due to a prolonged Russian onslaught, as per a military representative on Thursday.

Chasiv Yar is a short distance west of Bakhmut, which was captured by Russia last year after a bitter 10-month battle.

For months, Russian forces have focused on capturing Chasiv Yar, a town which occupies an elevated location.

The loss of this area would not only endanger neighboring cities but also disrupt essential Ukrainian supply lines and bring Russia closer to its goal of taking control of the entire Donetsk region.

According to a military spokesperson from the Khortytsia ground forces formation named Nazar Voloshyn, the Ukrainian army has withdrawn from a section in the northeastern part of the town, as conveyed in a message to The Associated Press on Thursday.

Ukraine’s defensive positions in the town were “destroyed,” he said, adding that there was a threat of serious casualties if troops remained in the area and that Russia did not leave “a single intact building.”

Months of relentless Russian artillery strikes have devastated Chasiv Yar, with homes and municipal offices charred, and a town that once had a population of 12,000 has been left deserted.

Oleh Shyriaiev, commander of the 255 assault battalion which has been based in the area for six months, said after Russian troops captured the neighborhood, they burned every building not already destroyed by shelling.

Shyriaiev said Russia is deploying scorched-earth tactics in an attempt to destroy anything which could be used as a military position in a bid to force troops to retreat.

“I regret that we are gradually losing territory,” he said, speaking by phone from the Chasiv Yar area, but added, “we cannot hold what is ruined.”

Russian troops outnumber Ukrainians 10-to-1 in the area but Shyriaiev suggested that, even with that ratio, they have not been able to make significant progress in the past six months of active fighting.

The intensity of Russian strikes on Ukraine’s defensive line in the area of Chasiv Yar has increased over the last month, Voloshyn said.

In the past week alone, Voloshyn said Russia has carried out nearly 1,300 strikes, fired nearly 130 glide bombs and made 44 ground assaults.

Other Russian attacks in recent weeks have focused on capturing nearby settlements that would allow them to advance to Kramatorsk and Sloviansk, the biggest cities in the Ukrainian-controlled part of the Donetsk region.

Ukrainian commanders in the area say their resources remain stretched, largely due to a monthslong gap in military assistance from the United States which threw Ukraine’s military onto the defensive.

Shyriaiev, the assault battalion commander, said ammunition from allies is arriving, but more slowly than needed by the army.

“We are determined to hold on to the end,” said the commander, who has been fighting on the front line since the outbreak of the war.

Elsewhere in Ukraine, the governor of the northern Chernihiv region, Viacheslav Chaus, said Russia launched 22 drones over Ukraine last night.

One hit a power infrastructure facility in the northern Chernihiv region, leaving nearly 6,000 customers without electricity, he said, adding that the rest were shot down.

Russia is continually targeting Ukraine’s badly damaged energy infrastructure, resulting in hours of rolling blackouts across the country.

Ukrainian officials have warned that the situation may worsen as winter approaches.