Recent setbacks have prompted rare criticism from Ukraine's military bloggers.
“The (Russian) breakthrough near Ochertyn revealed a number of problems,” a deep state Telegram channel with close ties to the Ukrainian military said in a post on Wednesday.
It said leaders of the 115th Mechanized Brigade, fighting in the area, were “responsible for the collapse of defense throughout the area, causing significant losses”.
Kiev's forces are outnumbered on the battlefield, with the country now struggling to recruit enough troops to replace those killed, wounded or exhausted in the third year of the war.
Leaders in Kiev have warned that the military outlook could worsen over the next few weeks, while US arms shipments reach the front lines.
“We are still waiting for the supplies delivered to Ukraine,” President Volodymyr Zelensky said in an address on Sunday evening.
Speaking after talks with Hakeem Jeffries, the leader of the Democrats in the US House of Representatives, he said he once again stressed the urgent need for the Patriot anti-missile system “as soon as possible.”
Kirill Budanov, the head of intelligence at Ukraine's Defense Ministry, said this month that battlefield conditions from mid-May to early June would likely be the most difficult.
