KYIV: Russian forces on Tuesday pressed forward their weeks-long drive to encircle and capture the eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut, while Kyiv urged the West to provide longer-range firepower to counter Russia’s missile barrages.
The Russian troops, including mercenary fighters from the Wagner Group, are trying to cut the Ukrainian defenders’ supply lines to the city, scene of some of the war’s bloodiest battles, and force them to surrender or withdraw.
That would give Russia its first major prize in more than half a year and open the way to the capture of the last remaining urban centres in the Donetsk region, one of four which Moscow claims to have annexed in what it calls its “special military operation” in Ukraine.
“Despite significantw losses, the enemy threw in the most prepared assault units of Wagner, who are trying to break through the defences of our troops and surround the city,” Ukraine’s Colonel General Oleksandr Syrskyi said in a statement.
An unnamed soldier from Ukraine’s 93rd Separate Mechanised Brigade, speaking on the Telegram messaging app as explosions boomed in the background, struck a defiant note: “February 28, the town of Bakhmut. The city is on fire, the enemy is pressing. Everything will be Ukraine...”
Russia’s RIA news agency released a video clip which it said showed Russian Su-25 fighter jets roaring over Bakhmut. “We are glad they are ours,” says a man in the clip identified as a Wagner fighter, adding the jets helped them “psychologically”.
Ukraine’s military said Russia was shelling settlements around Bakhmut, which had a pre-war population of around 70,000 but now lies in ruins after months of intense trench warfare.Ukrainian soldiers in the Donetsk region hunkered in muddy trenches after warmer weather thawed out the frozen ground.“Both sides stay in their positions, because as you see, spring means mud. Thus, it is impossible to move forward,” said Mykola, 59, commander of a Ukrainian frontline rocket launcher battery, watching a tablet screen for coordinates to fire.
The spring thaw has a history of ruining plans by armies to attack across Ukraine and western Russia, turning roads into rivers and fields into quagmires.
In a zigzag trench, Volodymyr, a 25-year-old platoon commander, said his men were prepared to operate in any weather. — Reuters
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