Ukrainian troops held on to their positions in the devastated eastern city of Bakhmut amid constant attacks as Russian forces pushed to claim their first major victory in more than half a year.
Russia says its capture of the salt mining town of Bakhmut, now the site of the longest and bloodiest battle since Moscow invaded its neighbor just over a year ago, would put it on track to secure full control of the rest of the strategic industrial region of Donbas to set. , one of the main objectives.
Ukraine says Bakhmut has limited strategic value, yet offers fierce resistance.
“Heavy fighting is going on for our Bakhmut,” said Oleksiy Reva, the head of the city’s military administration.
Only 4,500 people remain in the city, which once had a population of about 70,000.
A statement on Wednesday night by the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces said the Russians were trying to advance Bakhmut “without interruption” and President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said his troops are “controlling every sector of the front”.
Not everyone in Ukraine is convinced that Ukraine can continue to defend the city.
“I believe that sooner or later we will probably have to leave Bakhmut. There is no point in holding on to it at all costs…’ Ukrainian MP Serhiy Rakhmanin said on Ukrainian NV radio on Wednesday evening.
“But for now, Bakhmut will be defended for several purposes — first, to inflict as many Russian losses as possible and allow Russia to use its munitions and assets.”
Defense lines must not collapse, Rakhmanin said.
“There are two ways to approach this: an organized retreat or a simple flight. And we cannot allow flights to take place under any circumstances,” he said.
The battle for Bakhmut began about seven months ago, but in recent weeks the Russian advance has left defenders on three sides fighting, with the only way out to the west.
The Ukrainian army statement also said that Russian forces were preparing for new attacks in the central Zaporizhia region and on the southern front in the Kherson region.
More than 40 towns and villages had been shelled, it said, including the regional center of Kherson and other towns on the western bank of the Dnipro River that had been abandoned by Russian forces in November.
‘Winter is over’
Ukrainians and Russians traditionally mark March 1 as the beginning of spring. The frozen ground at the front has already melted, heralding the season of sucking black mud – “bezdorizhzhia” in Ukrainian, “rasputitsa” in Russian – notorious in military history for destroying attacking armies.
Zelensky praised the Ukrainians for surviving a winter marked by systematic Russian attacks on energy facilities, plunging millions into darkness and cold.
“Winter is over. It was a very difficult one and without exaggeration every Ukrainian felt the difficulties,” Zelenskyy said in his nightly video message on Wednesday.
“But we succeeded in supplying Ukraine with energy and heat. The threat to the energy system remains. And work is underway to ensure that the energy system continues to function,” Zelenskyy said.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba hailed the first day of spring as another “great defeat” for Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine.
“We survived the most difficult winter in our history. It was cold and dark, but we were unbreakable,” Kuleba said in a statement.
Russia has tried to justify its invasion by saying it was necessary to remove “security threats”. Ukraine was once part of the Soviet Union, which broke up in 1991, but has moved closer to Western Europe since independence.
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