KyiyUkraine’s President, Volodymyr Zelensky, has said that the operation to defend Bakhmut will continue, and has tasked the military with finding troops to strengthen the beleaguered town’s defenses. “I asked the chief of staff to find suitable forces to help the people in Bakhmut. There is no part of Ukraine that one can say has been abandoned,” Zelensky said during his address to the nation on Monday. May go.”
The BBC reported that Moscow has been trying to take Bakhmut for months after both sides suffered heavy losses in the fierce battle. However, deputy mayor Oleksandr Marchenko stated that Russia had not yet gained control of the city.
Meanwhile, Yevgeny Prigozhin, head of Wagner’s private army involved in the Russian campaign, has complained of ammunition shortages amid apparent friction between his fighters and regular Russian forces, the British news broadcaster reported. He also said that his representative was banned from the Russian military headquarters.
Analysts say Bakhmut has little strategic importance, but it has become a focal point for Russian commanders, who have struggled to deliver any positive news to the Kremlin, the media outlet reported.
Capturing the city would bring Russia closer to its goal of controlling the entire Donetsk region, one of four regions in eastern and southern Ukraine that have been widely condemned outside Russia since the referendum last September. was roundly condemned.
His top adviser, Mykhailo Podolić, said that Ukrainian forces around Bakhmut were crushing enemy forces, consolidating their positions and training thousands of Ukrainian military personnel for a possible counter-offensive.
Intense Russian shelling targeted the city in the Donetsk region and surrounding villages as Moscow launched a three-pronged attack to try to crush Bakhmut’s resistance.
The nearby towns of Chasiv Yar and Kostinativanka came under heavy shelling, damaging cars and houses and starting fires. There is no immediate news of any casualty.
Police and volunteers evacuated people from Chasiv Yar and other front-line towns, in an operation made difficult by the loss of bridges and constant artillery fire, leaving barely a house standing.
The Russian forces have been unable to deliver the knockout blow that allows them to capture Bakhmut. Analysts say the city does not have major strategic value and its capture would be unlikely to serve as a turning point in the conflict.
The Russian push for Bakhmut reflects the Kremlin’s wider struggle to regain battlefield momentum. Moscow’s full-scale offensive soon stalled on February 24, 2022, and Ukraine mounted a largely successful counter-offensive. In the bitterly cold winter months, the fighting has largely been a stalemate.
The importance of the city has been mostly symbolic. For Russian President Vladimir Putin, a victory there will finally bring some good news from the front. For Kiev, the show of patience and defiance underscores the message that Ukraine is justifying continued support from its Western allies after a year of brutal attacks.
US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said during a visit to Jordan on Monday that Bakhmut’s “symbolic value … exceeds strategic and operational value”. Moscow continues to “pour a lot of undertrained and ill-equipped troops” into Bakhmut, he said, while Ukraine patiently builds up “battle power” with Western military support ahead of a possible spring offensive.
On Monday, Prigozhin warned in a Russian social media post that the situation in Bakhmut “will become a ‘pie’: the filling are parts of the Armed Forces of Ukraine surrounded by us (in case, of course, if there is a complete encirclement of Bakhmut”. ), and the shell is actually the Wagner” group.
Bakhmut has taken on an almost mythological significance. It has become like Mariupol – the port city in the same province that Russia captured last year after an 82-day siege that eventually turned into a giant steel mill – where determined Ukrainian fighters held out against civilians.
Moscow sought to consolidate its rule in Mariupol. The Defense Ministry said Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu visited some of the city’s rebuilt infrastructure – a newly built hospital, a rescue center and residential buildings.
The Russian Volunteer Corps last week claimed responsibility for attacks on Russian villages on the border with Ukraine. The FSB said on Monday that Kapustin organized and led the raid, which killed two civilians and wounded two others. The FSB’s allegations could not be independently verified.