Ukrainian forces defending Bakhmut are facing increasingly strong pressure from Russian forces, British military intelligence said on Saturday, with intense fighting taking place in and around the eastern city.
Key points:
- Wagner Group militia have made further advances into the northern suburbs of Bakhmut, in Ukraine’s east
- A Russian victory in the city would give it its first major prize in a costly winter offensive
- Both sides are expected to launch renewed offensives in the spring, and the US is trying to rush more support to Kyiv in preparation
Ukraine is reinforcing the area with elite units, while regular Russian army and forces of the Russian private military Wagner Group have made further advances into Bakhmut’s northern suburbs, the British Defence Ministry said in its daily intelligence bulletin on Twitter.
Two key bridges in Bakhmut have been destroyed within the last 36 hours, it said, adding that Ukrainian-held resupply routes out of the city are increasingly limited.
Reuters observed intense Russian shelling of routes leading west out of Bakhmut on Friday, an apparent attempt to block Ukrainian forces’ access in and out of the city.
Russia’s RIA state news agency released a video showing what it said were fighters from Russia’s Wagner Group private army walking by a damaged industrial facility.
One fighter can be heard saying Ukraine’s army is destroying infrastructure in settlements near Bakhmut to prevent the Russian encirclement.
The commander of Ukraine’s ground forces, Oleksandr Syrskyi, visited Bakhmut on Friday for briefings with local commanders on how to boost the defence capacity of frontline forces.
Denys Yaroslavskyi, commander of a Ukrainian army unit at Bakhmut, told Espreso TV that parts of some units had been ordered to rotate to more secured positions, describing the situation since the morning as “a slaughterhouse on both sides”.
A Russian victory in Bakhmut, with a pre-war population of about 70,000, would give it its first major prize in a costly winter offensive, after it called up hundreds of thousands of reservists last year.
Russia says it would be a stepping stone to completing the capture of the Donbas industrial region, one of Moscow’s most important objectives.
Before the war, Bakhmut was known for its salt and gypsum mines. Ukraine says the city has little strategic value, and the huge casualties Russia has suffered trying to take Bakhmut could shape the course of the conflict.
‘Pincers are closing’, Prigozhin says
“Units of the private military company Wagner have practically surrounded Bakhmut,” Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin said in a video that Reuters determined was filmed on a rooftop in a village some seven kilometres north of the city centre.
“Only one route [out] is left,” he said. “The pincers are closing.”
Mr Prigozhin called on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to order a retreat from Bakhmut to save his soldiers’ lives.
The camera then panned to show three captured Ukrainians — a grey-bearded older man and two boys — asking to be allowed to go home.
Robert Brovdi, the commander of a Ukrainian drone unit active in Bakhmut who goes by the name “Madyar”, said in a video posted on social media that his unit had been ordered to withdraw immediately.
He said he had been fighting there for 110 days.
Volodymyr Nazarenko, a deputy commander in the National Guard of Ukraine, told Ukrainian NV Radio the situation was “critical”, with fighting “round the clock”.
“They take no account of their losses in trying to take the city by assault. The task of our forces in Bakhmut is to inflict as many losses on the enemy as possible. Every metre of Ukrainian land costs hundreds of lives to the enemy,” he said.
“There are many more Russians here than we have ammunition to destroy them.”
Russia regroups after border-region raid
The past few days have seen alarm in Russia at its own potential vulnerabilities after Moscow reported a number of drone attacks on targets deep within Russia, followed by what it said was an armed cross-border raid on Thursday.
President Vladimir Putin told his security council on Friday to step up “anti-terrorism measures”.
Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu also paid a rare visit to Russia’s forces deployed in Ukraine, his ministry said on Saturday.
Russia’s top military chiefs have visited front lines in Ukraine only sparingly since the beginning of the war, which Moscow calls a “special military operation”.
“The Minister of Defence of the Russian Federation, General of the Army Sergei Shoigu, inspected the forward command post of one of the formations of the Eastern Military District in the South Donetsk direction,” his ministry said in a statement published on messaging app Telegram.
In a video released by the ministry, General Shoigu is seen awarding medals to Russian military personnel and touring a ruined town together with the district’s commander, Colonel-General Rustam Muradov.
General Shoigu, who has served as defence minister since 2012, has come under harsh criticism over his performance in the conflict from pro-war advocates.
Mr Prigozhin last month accused the him and others of “treason” for withholding supplies of munitions to his militia.
Russia must face court, Zelenskyy tells Garland, Europeans
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Friday met with US Attorney-General Merrick Garland and top European legal officials, calling for Russia to face international prosecution for war crimes.
Mr Zelenskyy announced the meetings in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv, hundreds of kilometres from the war’s front lines, during his evening video address to the nation.
“We are doing everything to ensure that the International Criminal Court is successful in punishing Russian war criminals,” Mr Zelenskyy said.
“The main issue of all these meetings and the Lviv conference is accountability,” he added.
“The accountability of Russia and its leadership is personal, for aggression and terror against our state and people.”
Mr Zelenskyy said over 70,000 Russian war crimes have been recorded so far.
“But, unfortunately, we do not know about all crimes at the moment,” he added.
“A large part of our territory still remains occupied and we cannot currently reliably predict how many Russian crimes we would discover after the occupiers are expelled.”
US sending missiles, bridge-launchers to Ukraine for spring fighting
The US announced a new $US400 million ($591 million) military aid package for Ukraine on Friday that for the first time included armoured vehicles that can launch bridges — allowing troops to cross rivers or other gaps as Russian and Ukrainian forces remain entrenched on opposite sides of the Dnipro River.
The war had largely slowed to a grinding stalemate during the winter months, with Russia and Ukraine firing at each other from across the river.
Both sides are expected to launch offensives as temperatures warm, and the US and its allies are trying to rush additional support to Kyiv to best position it for intensified spring fighting.
This round of aid will be drawn from existing US weapons stockpiles so it can arrive in Ukraine faster.
The armoured vehicle-launched bridge is a portable, 18-metre folding metal bridge that is carried on top of a tank body.
Providing that system now could make it easier for Ukrainian troops to cross rivers to get to Russian forces.
Because Ukraine also continues to face shortages of ammunition in the intense firefight, this aid package, like previous ones, includes thousands of replacement rounds, such as rockets for the High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS) and 155mm Howitzer rounds.
It also includes demolition munitions and equipment for clearing obstacles to help Ukraine break through dug-in lines.
Since Russia invaded Ukraine a year ago, the US has sent in more than $US32 billion ($47.3 billion) in weapons and equipment.
Reuters/AP