Kiev said on Sunday it was halting attacks by Russian troops still besieging the eastern Ukrainian town of Bakhmut, which Moscow has been trying to capture for months.
Ukraine has vowed to defend “Fort Bakhmut”, but it has to face Russian troops determined to take the city, which has turned into a political prize as the battle continues.
The Ukrainian General Staff said that “more than 130 enemy attacks” had been repelled over the past day, including Kupiansk, Liman, Bakhmut and Avdiivka.
“The enemy continues to try to encircle the town of Bakhmut,” it said on Sunday morning.
Bakhmut has been mostly reduced to rubble during the longest and bloodiest battle of the invasion.
Sergiy Cherevaty, a spokesman for the Ukrainian military, said on Saturday the situation was “difficult but under control” in the city, which he described as a “priority target for the enemy”.
The US-based Institute for the Study of War (ISW) said fighting was ongoing around the city, warning that Ukrainian supply routes were narrowing.
ISW said on Saturday, “The Russians may have intended to encircle Ukrainian forces in Bakhmut, but the Ukrainian command has indicated it would rather retreat than risk encirclement.”
Ukraine and Russia have fought fiercely since the summer for the city, whose symbolic importance outweighs its military importance.
rivalry
Pro-Russian separatists in the Donetsk region posted a video purported to show Wagner fighters taking control of the Stupki railway station in the suburbs north of Bakhmut.
Wagner, a private army headed by Yevgeny Prigozhin, has taken center stage in the battle for the city, which has ignited a rivalry with Russia’s conventional forces.
On Friday, Prigozhin said his fighters had “practically surrounded” Bakhmut, and only one road remained under Ukrainian control.
Prigozhin has been publicizing his men’s progress towards the eastern city for weeks.
Prigozhin regularly posts videos of himself with mercenaries, on the ground or even in a fighter jet, in contrast to Russian generals criticized for avoiding the front line.
In a rare exception, Russia on Saturday released a video of Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu inspecting troops in border areas in Ukraine.
The ministry said Sergei Shoigu inspected an advance command post in the south Donetsk direction, without specifying where or when.
He was seen traveling in a helicopter and talking to a soldier in front of damaged buildings.
The ISW think tank said that Shoigu was there “to assess the extent of Russian losses around Vagledar and to assess the possibility of a further offensive in this direction”.
While the epicenter of fighting is in Ukraine’s east, the death toll from this week’s strike on an apartment block in southern Zaporizhzhya has now risen to 13.
Zaporizhia is one of four regions – along with Donetsk, Lugansk and Kherson – that Russia claims it has annexed but never fully controls.
Nevertheless, Moscow’s military has occupied the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant since March 4, 2022.
The plant has repeatedly made headlines and revived fears of a nuclear catastrophe similar to the deadly Chernobyl disaster that shook Ukraine in 1986.
The exiled mayor of Energodar, which lies in the centre, told AFP that Russia uses the plant as a “nuclear shield” for its troops and equipment.
Kiev and Moscow have blamed each other for the shelling around the plant and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has stationed observers there.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Saturday that Russia had “taken” the nuclear power plant hostage a year ago, and turned the area of ”the (power plant) into a de facto military training ground”.
Zelensky also met with European Parliament President Roberta Metsola on Saturday, who urged Ukraine to allow it to start EU membership talks this year.
The United States on Friday announced a new $400 million security aid package for Ukraine that included a range of ammunition for Kiev’s forces.
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(This story has not been edited by News18 staff and is published from a syndicated news agency feed)