This video shot by AFPTV shows an aerial view of the destruction in town of Bakhmut on February 27, 2023 – Ukraine said on February 28, 2023 of the Donetsk region that Russia has been trying to take over for months.
– | afp | Getty’s paintings
Russian artillery fired the last roads from Bakhmut on Friday, aiming to complete the encirclement of the besieged Ukrainian city and produce Moscow closer to its first major victory in six months after the bloodiest battle of the war.
The commander of Wagner’s Russian private army said town, which had been devastated in greater than seven months of Russia’s onslaught, was almost completely surrounded, with just one road still open to Ukrainian troops.
Reuters observed intense shelling of Russian routes west of Bakhmut in an apparent attempt to block Ukrainian forces’ access to and from town. A bridge within the neighboring town of Chromove was damaged by Russian tank fire.
Ukrainian soldiers worked to repair damaged roads, and more troops headed towards the front line, an indication that Ukraine was not yet ready to hand over town. Within the west, the Ukrainians dug latest trenches for defensive positions.
Russia’s state-run news agency RIA has released a video showing Wagner militants walking past a destroyed industrial facility. One militant is heard saying that the Ukrainian army is destroying infrastructure in settlements near Bakhmut to prevent a Russian encirclement.
The commander of the Ukrainian ground forces, Oleksandr Syrski, visited Bakhmut on Friday for briefings with local commanders on ways to increase the defense capabilities of the frontline forces.
Denys Yaroslawski, commander of a Ukrainian army unit in Bakhmut, told Espreso TV that parts of some units had been ordered to rotate to safer positions, describing the situation since morning as a “slaughterhouse on each side”.
A Russian victory at Bakhmut, whose pre-war population was around 70,000, would have given it its first major prize in a costly winter offensive after it drafted a whole lot of hundreds of reservists last yr. Russia claims that this could be a step towards completing the economic takeover of the Donbas region, one of Moscow’s most significant goals.
Before the war, Bakhmut was known for its salt and gypsum mines. Ukraine argues that town has little strategic value, and that the large losses suffered by Russia in its attempt to seize Bakhmut may affect the course of the conflict.
“The Pliers Close”
“The units of the Wagner private military company have practically surrounded Bakhmut,” Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin said within the video, which Reuters determined was shot on the roof of a village about 7 km (4 miles) north of town center.
“There is just one route left (outbound),” he said. “The parts are closing.”
He called on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to order a retreat from Bakhmut so as to save the lives of his soldiers. The camera panned to show three captured Ukrainians – a grey-bearded elderly man and two boys – asking for permission to return home.
Robert Brovdi, the commander of the Ukrainian drone unit operating in Bakhmut, nicknamed “Madyar”, said in a video posted on social media that his unit was ordered to withdraw immediately. He said he fought there for 110 days.
Volodymyr Nazarenko, deputy commander of the National Guard of Ukraine, told Ukrainian NV radio that the situation was “critical” and the fighting continued “across the clock”.
“They don’t count their losses, trying to take town by storm. The duty of our forces in Bakhmut is to inflict as much damage on the enemy as possible. Every meter of Ukrainian land costs the enemy a whole lot of lives,” he said.
“There are a lot of more Russians here than we’ve the ammunition to destroy them.”
More American weapons
Over the past few days, Russia has been concerned about its potential vulnerability after Moscow reported a series of drone strikes on targets deep inside Russia, followed by an armed cross-border raid on Thursday.
President Vladimir Putin told his Security Council on Friday to step up “counter-terrorism measures.”
Meanwhile, Zelensky visited the wounded soldiers in a military hospital in Lviv. One, squeezing the President’s hand from the bed, apologized for not having the ability to rise up. “All right,” Zelensky said. “The time will come and you’ll rise.”
Zelensky didn’t give details of the fighting in Bakhmut throughout the evening’s video speech, wherein he thanked the soldiers for the “firm and courageous” defense of town.
In Washington, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced one other round of military aid to Ukraine, an ammunition package and other support price USD 400 million.
The USA has provided Ukraine with nearly $32 billion in aid since Russia invaded on February 24, 2022.
On the White House, US President Joe Biden thanked German Chancellor Olaf Scholz for his “deep” support for Ukraine. Scholz said it was essential to send a message that support for Ukraine would proceed “so long as needed and for so long as needed.”
After the meeting, the White House said the pair reiterated their pledge to impose costs on Russia over its invasion of Ukraine.
The Germans promised Leopard tanks in January, that are to form the core of Ukraine’s latest armored forces.
Scholz was criticized by some Western allies for his cautious public stance on arming Ukraine, although he oversaw a significant shift in policy from what was Russia’s largest energy consumer before the war.
Kiev’s ambassador to Berlin, Oleksiy Makeev, said Germany was now taking a more leadership role in arming Ukraine.
Moscow, which says it has annexed nearly a fifth of Ukraine, accuses pro-Western Kiev of posing a security risk. Ukraine and its allies claim that the invasion was an unprovoked war of conquest.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, pointing to US military interventions around the globe, accused the US of hypocrisy on Friday after Blinken said Moscow couldn’t wage war in Ukraine with impunity. The 2 men met briefly on the sidelines of the G-20 foreign ministers’ meeting in India.