[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text dp_text_size=”size-4″]UKRAINE: After the deadliest fight of the war, Russian artillery hammered the final exits from Bakhmut on Friday in an effort to encircle the besieged Ukrainian city and push Moscow closer to its first significant victory in half a year.
According to the commander of Russia’s Wagner private army, only one path remained accessible for Ukrainian troops to enter the city, which has been reduced to rubble by Russia’s more than seven-month assault.
According to Reuters, Russia has been heavily pounding the roads going west from Bakhmut in an apparent effort to obstruct Ukrainian forces’ access to and from the city. Russian tank fire destroyed a bridge in the nearby village of Khromove.
In a sign that Ukraine was still unwilling to cede control of the city, Ukrainian soldiers were working to restore the city’s damaged roadways and more troops were moving towards the frontlines. Ukrainians were creating fresh trenches to the west as defensive positions.
The state news agency of Russia, RIA, produced a video purportedly depicting Wagner fighters passing over a destroyed industrial facility. In order to stop the Russian encirclement, one fighter is heard explaining that the Ukrainian army is destroying the infrastructure in communities close to Bakhmut.
Oleksandr Syrskyi, the commander of the ground forces of Ukraine, went to Bakhmut on Friday to advise regional commanders on how to improve the defence capabilities of frontline units.
According to Denys Yaroslavskyi, commander of a Ukrainian army battalion at Bakhmut, some forces have been forced to rotate to safer locations. He described the situation as “a butcher on both sides” since the morning.
After mobilising hundreds of thousands of reservists last year, a Russian victory in Bakhmut, which had a pre-war population of roughly 70,000, would give it the first significant victory in an expensive winter operation. Russia says it would be a stepping stone to completing the capture of the Donbas industrial region, one of Moscow’s most important objectives.
Bakhmut was well-known for its salt and gypsum mines prior to the conflict. According to Ukraine, the city has minimal strategic significance and the significant fatalities Russia has sustained while attempting to seize Bakhmut may have an impact on how the war develops.
Pincers are shutting down.
“Units of the private military company Wagner have practically surrounded Bakhmut,” Wagner head Yevgeny Prigozhin said in a video that Reuters determined was recorded on a rooftop in a settlement about 7 km north of the city centre.
There is only one remaining exit, he declared. The pincers are getting smaller.
To spare the lives of his soldiers, he urged Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to issue an order for a retreat from Bakhmut. A grey-bearded older guy and two sons, who were three captured Ukrainians, were seen pleading to be let to return home as the camera swung to them.
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In a video shared on social media, Robert Brovdi, the leader of a Ukrainian drone team operating in Bakhmut who goes by the alias “Madyar,” declared that his force had been told to leave right away. He said that he had fought there for 110 days.
A deputy commander in the Ukrainian National Guard, Volodymyr Nazarenko, told Ukrainian NV Radio that the situation was “serious” and that there was continuous fighting.
“They don’t account for the casualties they sustained while attempting to take the city by force. 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.”
More US weapons
After Moscow reported a number of drone assaults on targets deep inside Russia, followed by what it claimed was an armed cross-border raid on Thursday, there has been concern in Russia over its own possible vulnerabilities in recent days.
On Friday, President Vladimir Putin urged his Security Council to intensify “anti-terrorism measures”.
Zelenskiy, in the meantime, paid a visit to injured soldiers at a military hospital in Lviv. One apologised for his inability to stand up while shaking the president’s hand from his bed. That’s fine, Zelenskiy remarked. When the time is right, you’ll stand up.
During a nighttime video speech in which he thanked soldiers for “firmly and heroically” defending the city, Zelenskiy made no mention of the combat in Bakhmut.
A $400 million package of ammunition and other supplies was announced by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken in Washington as part of another round of military assistance for Ukraine.
Since Russia’s invasion on February 24, 2022, the United States has donated close to $32 billion in aid to Ukraine.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz was in town, and US President Joe Biden hailed him at the White House for his “deep” support of Ukraine. According to Scholz, it’s critical to convey that support for Ukraine will last “as long as it takes and as long as is necessary.”
The White House reported that following their conversation, the two reaffirmed their commitment to hold Russia accountable for its invasion of Ukraine.
German Leopard tanks, which were promised in January and are anticipated to form the nucleus of a new Ukrainian armoured force, are made.
Although he has oversaw a significant change in policy from a nation that was Russia’s top energy customer prior to the war, Scholz has come under fire from some Western allies for taking a cautious public posture against arming Ukraine.
Oleksii Makeiv, the ambassador for Kiev in Berlin, claimed that Germany was now playing a more proactive role in equipping Ukraine.
Russia, which asserts that it has annexed about 5% of Ukraine, charges pro-Western Kiev with being a security concern. The invasion, according to Ukraine and its allies, was an unprovoked war of conquest.
On Friday, when Blinken stated Moscow cannot be permitted to conduct war in Ukraine with impunity, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov accused the US of being hypocritical by citing US military interventions around the world. On the sidelines of a G20 foreign ministers conference in India, the two men had a brief encounter.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]
