Ukrainians struggle to hold in the east as U.S. artillery rocket system arrives.

As Russian forces pounded a key supply line to soldiers defending the last pocket of land under Ukraine’s control in the eastern Luhansk Province, there was no sign of a broad Ukrainian retreat on Thursday. A Ukrainian fighter jet screamed through the sky and Ukrainian troops were digging into their defensive positions.

While the Ukrainian military faces perhaps its greatest moment of peril since the fall of Mariupol a month ago, Ukraine’s defense chief hailed the arrival of the United States’ most advanced artillery rocket launcher system into the country.

Ukrainian forces in the east remain badly outgunned and at grave risk of being encircled. One Ukrainian tank crew heading away from the front lines for repairs on Thursday said that for every five rounds they fire at Russian forces, the Russians fire 150 in return. Read more

@nytimes