Situation on eastern front has 'significantly worsened' in recent days, Ukraine's army chief warns

Ukraine's top military general warned Saturday that the battlefield situation in the east of the country, which continues to be the epicenter of the fiercest fighting in Ukraine, has deteriorated sharply.

"The situation on the eastern front has significantly worsened in recent days," Oleksandr Syrskyi, commander-in-chief of Ukraine's armed forces, said on Telegram.

"This is primarily due to the significant intensification of enemy offensive actions following the presidential elections in the Russian Federation," he added, in comments translated by NBC News.

Syrskyi said warm, dry weather had facilitated Russian forces' attacks on Ukrainian positions in the Lyman and Bakhmut areas of the Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine, with Russian "assault groups supported by armored vehicles," including dozens of tanks and infantry fighting vehicles.

"Despite significant losses, the enemy is increasing efforts by deploying new units with armored vehicles, occasionally achieving tactical success," Syrsyki said.

Russia's military objectives, at least in the near term, are to capture the rest of the Luhansk and Donetsk regions in eastern Ukraine, areas that they currently only partially occupy despite Russia claiming them as part of the Russian Federation, having illegally annexed them in Sept. 2022.

Nonetheless, Russian forces have made some notable advances in Luhansk and Donetsk in recent months, aided by their advantage in terms of manpower and supplies of artillery shells. On Saturday, Russia's defense ministry claimed its forces had captured another village, Pervomaisk, in Donetsk. CNBC was unable to verify the claim and Ukraine has not yet commented.

Ukraine, meanwhile, has been warning of acute shortages of artillery in parts of the