Ukraine assured it was causing massive losses to the Russian army amid the siege of Bakhmut

The intensity of the fighting “is constantly increasing” around the Ukrainian city of Bakhmutthat Russian troops have been trying to conquer for months, the Ukrainian president said on Tuesday, Volodimir Zelensky.

“The biggest difficulty, as before, is Bakhmut (…). Russia does not count its troops, it constantly sends them to attack our positions. The intensity of the fighting continues to increaseZelensky said in his daily evening briefing to the nation.

The Ukrainian army on Tuesday recognized a situation “extremely tense” in Bakhmut, where Russian troops are trying to lift the siege to conquer this eastern city devastated by weeks of bombardment.

However, Ukrainian Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Malayar, assured that the army Ukraine inflicts massive casualties on the enemy who force the regular soldiers to relieve the mercenaries of the Wagner group.

Since the boreal summer, Muscovite troops have sought to take this city which has become a symbol of combat for control of the industrial region of Donbass, in the east of the country.

Zelensky said in his evening daily report to the nation that “the greatest difficulty, as before, is Bakhmut (…). Russia does not count its troops, it constantly sends them to attack our position”.

During his visit to the region in December, the president promised to defend the city “as long as possible”.

“The situation around Bakhmut is extremely tense,” he admitted on Tuesday. Oleksander Syrsky, quoted by the official press center of the army.

“The enemy sent the best prepared units (from the paramilitary group) Wagner to attack, trying to break through the defense of our troops and surround the city,” he added.

The head of the Wagner group, Yevgueny Prigozhin, announced on Saturday the capture by his men of the town of Yahidne, located on the northern outskirts of Bakhmut. In January Soledar has already fallen, and in February Krasna Gora, also in the north.

In recent weeks, Russian forces have been slowly closing in on taking Bakhmut, which had some 70,000 inhabitants before the invasion of February 24, 2022.

The Russians succeeded in cutting off three of the four Ukrainian supply routes. The only exit is that which leads to Chasiv Yar, about fifteen kilometers further west, to the south of which the Muscovite forces are trying to reach.

Bakhmut remained largely destroyed by fighting.

Governor of Donetsk region, Pavlo Kyrylenkoreported in mid-February that fewer than 5,000 civilians, including some 140 minors, remained in the city despite the danger of fighting.

The Ukrainian soldiers deployed in the city, contacted by AFP On Monday, they said they had not lost morale.

“We can’t know the whole operational situation, but we are there, we did not fleesaid a 44-year-old soldier nicknamed “Kai”.

“Not only Bakhmut, we will also take back Crimea and everything else,” added 45-year-old ‘Ded’.

Private “Fox”, meanwhile, was pessimistic: “I think, most likely, Bakhmut will fall.”

Russia, for its part, said on Tuesday that a Ukrainian drone crashed about 100 km from Moscow, near a gas compressor station. Three other planes were shot down in other parts of the country, without causing any damage.

In recent months, there have been several incidents with drones on Russian territory, although this is the first time this has happened in the capital region.

The Battle of Bakhmut and these incidents occur as the war in Ukraine has just entered its second year.

kyiv insistently asks to be able to join NATO, to which the secretary general of the alliance, Jens Stoltenbergreplied on Tuesday that the former Soviet republic would become one of its members, but “in the long term”.

On the diplomatic front, Chinahitherto little involved in the conflict, last week presented a 12-point proposal for a “political solution” in which he calls for dialogue between Russians and Ukrainians.

Although Western allies greeted Beijing’s plan with skepticism, President Zelensky said he was ready to “work” with China and announced his intention to meet his counterpart Xi Jinping.

For the Kremlin, on the other hand, the conditions for a “peaceful” solution to the conflict do not exist “for the moment”.

One of Moscow’s main allies, the Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenkoarrived in Beijing on Tuesday for an unusual visit, which will include a meeting with Xi Jinping.

Russian forces are outnumbered in the battle for the Ukrainian stronghold of Bakhmut, but the army of Ukraine inflicts massive casualties on the enemy which force regular soldiers to relieve mercenaries of the Wagner Group, the Ukrainian Deputy Defense Minister said on Tuesday, Hanna Malayar.

“There are professional soldiers and many Wagner units in the Bakhmut region,” Malyar told Ukrainian television, adding that “enemy losses are several times higher” than those of the Ukrainian army. “Our soldiers have the capacity to destroy 80% of terrorists”he added.

Malyar is the first Ukrainian government official to publicly comment on the situation in the city after the acting head of the so-called Donetsk People’s Republic, Denis Pushilin, assured that the Wagner Group had taken a neighborhood on the outskirts of Bakhmut .

In a military report published on its Facebook account, the Ukrainian armed forces general staff affirms that the enemy continues the offensive in Bakhmut “and continues to launch assaults on the city”.

(With information from EFE and AFP)

Continue reading: