The situation for Ukraine on the front line may steadily worsen in the coming weeks, warns the head of Ukraine’s military intelligence service in an interview published Monday.

His assessment comes as Ukrainian forces struggle to contain outnumbered and outgunned Russian troops who have advanced in recent months and are expected to intensify their offensive soon.

“In our opinion, a rather difficult situation awaits us in the near future,” he admitted Kirill Butanov on the BBC Ukrainian service.

“But it’s not destructive, and we must understand this. Armageddon will not happen, as many people now say,” he insisted.

“But there will be problems from mid-May. I’m talking about the front in particular… It will be a difficult period in mid-May, early June,” Budanov estimated.

Moscow announced at the weekend that its forces had gained ground near the eastern city of Chasiv Yar.

If the strategically located city falls, Kiev fears it will pave the way for Russia to seize other important Donbas cities.

President Volodymyr Zelensky said for his part that Russian forces want to understand the city until May 9a date celebrating the Soviet Union’s victory over Nazi Germany in World War II.

Kiev has been struggling for months with a worsening ammunition shortage, but the situation is expected to improve in the coming weeks, with the US on Saturday finally approving a military aid package 61 billion dollars to help Ukraine in the conflict with Moscow.