Ukraine vowed on Monday to strengthen its defenses in frontline Bakhmut after reports of Kiev withdrawing from the city that has become a symbolic prize in the war.
But Ukrainian forces fighting to retain control of the salt-mining town told AFP a Russian capture was inevitable and some units had already begun to retreat.
The eastern Ukrainian city has been badly destroyed during the longest and bloodiest fighting since Russia’s more than a year-long invasion.
Kiev says the fighting is becoming increasingly difficult and analysts say its forces may have begun a strategic retreat.
But President Volodymyr Zelensky met with top commanders on Monday and his office said they were in favor of “continuing defensive operations and further strengthening their positions in Bakhmut”.
Neither side has said how many soldiers they have lost in the fighting, with observers saying both Moscow and Kiev are trying to wear each other down.
Outside Bakhmut, some Ukrainian troops had lost hope that Kiev would capture the city and looked set to retreat.
Near the town of Chasiv Yar, 10 kilometers (six miles) west of Bakhmut, a soldier said he had come to repair his tank after a month of fighting.
“Bakhmut will collapse,” he told AFP from the vehicle, his face marked with fatigue.
– ‘Retreat in groups’ –
“We are almost surrounded. Units are slowly retreating in small groups.”
They said that the only way out of Bakhmut is on the dirt roads that lead to Chasiv Yar. If the tanks got stuck there, they could become targets of artillery fire, he said.
The US-based Institute for the Study of War has said that Ukrainian forces may have begun a strategic withdrawal from the city.
A recent analytical note stated, “Ukrainian forces are conducting a limited tactical withdrawal in Bakhmut, although it is still too early to assess Ukrainian intentions regarding a complete withdrawal from the city.”
The Ukrainian army said on Sunday that its troops fought off “more than 130” Russian attacks in a single day around Bakhmut and said Moscow’s forces were trying to encircle the town.
Ukrainian officials have stated that approximately 4,500 civilians live in Bakhmut.
In Chasiv Yar, an elderly woman named Antonina said she was scared but determined to stay in the village where she was born.
The 82-year-old said he is surviving on humanitarian aid and vegetables from his garden.
She said the attacks were more intense last weekend.
Russia is determined to take Bakhmut at all costs, despite analysts saying the town has little strategic importance.
But there were signs that his army was also tired and struggling.
As the fighting escalates, the head of the Russian mercenary group Wagner, who is leading the Bakhmut battle, complains that his forces are short of ammunition.
Yevgeny Prigozhin alleged late Sunday that Russian reservists who were to be stationed in Bakhmut had been turned away and that ammunition promised by the military had been delayed.
“We are trying to understand what are the reasons – ordinary bureaucracy or betrayal,” Prigozhin said on social media.
– Conspiracy to murder –
Prigozhin, a Kremlin-linked businessman, has seen his influence balloon since the invasion of Moscow and regularly criticizes the Russian military.
Ukraine also faced new airstrikes, with the air force saying it had shot down 13 explosive drones launched from southern Russia overnight.
The Air Force said on Telegram that the Russian military had launched 15 Iranian-made Shaheed drones, of which 13 were shot down by Ukrainian forces.
South of Bakhmut, Russia’s Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu visited the port city of Mariupol, which Moscow captured after a protracted siege last spring.
Shoigu is one of the top Russian officials to visit eastern Ukraine. He visited the destroyed city to oversee reconstruction efforts.
Mariupol, on the Sea of Azov, fell to Russian forces last May and has since been largely cut off from outside scrutiny.
In Moscow, Russia’s FSB security service claimed it had foiled an assassination attempt on Konstantin Malofeyev, a controversial pro-Kremlin tycoon.
The FSB blamed a Russian-founded sabotage group that sneaked into the country’s borders from Ukraine last week.
It alleged that the killing was an “act of terror”, similar to the killing last August of Daria Dugina, the daughter of a far-right ideologue and Kremlin supporter.
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(This story has not been edited by News18 staff and is published from a syndicated news agency feed)