Russia claims control of eastern Bakhmut, Ukrainians resist

A Ukrainian soldier’s machine gun in a trench on the front line near Bakhmut, Ukraine, March 6, 2023. REUTERS/Oleksandr Ratushniak

Por Olena Harmash

KIEV, March 8 (Reuters) – The head of the Russian mercenary group Wagner claimed on Wednesday that his forces had taken full control of the eastern part of the Ukrainian city of Bakhmut, the scene of one of the bloodiest battles of the war, which it lasts a year.

If the claim is true, it would mean Russian forces control almost half the city in their costly offensive to achieve their first major victory in several months.

However, the Ukrainian defenders remain defiant. Last week they appeared to be preparing for a tactical withdrawal from Bakhmut, but military and political leaders are now talking about holding on and inflicting as many casualties as possible on the Russian assault force.

Wagner’s boss, Yevgeny Prigozhin, said his fighters, who had been leading the Russian campaign to take Bakhmut, had now captured the eastern part of the city.

“The entire east of the Bakhmutka River is completely under Wagner’s control,” Prigozhin said on Telegram.

The river bisects the city of Bakhmut, which sits on the edge of a swath of the Donetsk region already largely under Russian occupation.

Prigozhin has made premature claims of success on other occasions and Reuters has not been able to verify the latest claims.

Ukrainian military statements previously said there could be “conditions” in Bakhmut for a Ukrainian offensive.

“The main task of our troops in Bakhmut is to reduce the combat capacity of the enemy, to bleed his combat potential,” Serhi Cherevatyi, spokesman for the Eastern Ukrainian military command, told state television on Tuesday.

The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine stated in its report on Wednesday morning: “The enemy, despite heavy losses, (…) continues to storm the city of Bakhmut.”

LITANY OF DEVASTED CITIES

Russia, which claims to have annexed almost 20% of Ukrainian territory, has made progress in recent weeks around Bakhmut, but its winter offensive has produced no significant progress in assaults further north and south.

According to Moscow, the capture of Bakhmut would be a step towards the conquest of the Donbass industrial region, made up of the Donetsk and Luhansk provinces. Western analysts say Bakhmut has little strategic value.

However, Kiev says the losses suffered by Russia there could determine the future course of the war, with decisive battles expected in the coming months, when the weather clears and Ukraine receives more military aid, including heavy tanks.

The months of war there have been some of the deadliest and most destructive since Russia invaded in February last year, adding Bakhmut’s name to a list of devastated cities including Mariupol, Severodonetsk and Lisichansk.

A Ukrainian military drone showed the scale of the destruction in Bakhmut, filming burning apartment blocks and smoke billowing from residential areas.

Irina Vereshchuk, Ukraine’s deputy prime minister, said fewer than 4,000 civilians, including 38 children, out of a prewar population of about 70,000 remained in the city, which is now largely in ruins after months of shelling.

“The situation in the city is difficult. The enemy is actively assaulting our positions, however they are not successful and suffer colossal losses,” a Ukrainian border guard said in a video released by the State Border Service.

“Probably out of spite, they tried to blow up two bridges. But we continue to receive everything we need. The city is still standing, because Bakhmut was, is and will be Ukraine. We will keep in touch.”

The Ukrainian General Staff also said that the Russian military carried out more than 30 unsuccessful attacks over the past day alone near Orijovo-Vasilivka, 20 kilometers (12 miles) northwest of Bakhmut. They also shelled the surroundings of 10 settlements along the Bakhmut section of the front line.

EXPLOSIONS IN GAS PIPELINES

In another order of things, the New York Times reported that intelligence information studied by US authorities indicates that a pro-Ukrainian group was behind last year’s attacks on the Nord Stream gas pipelines. There was no evidence of the involvement of the kyiv government.

The underwater explosions in the gas pipelines between Russia and Germany, which took place seven months after the start of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, occurred in the exclusive economic zones of Sweden and Denmark in the Baltic Sea. Both countries have concluded that the blasts were deliberate, but have not said who might be responsible.

The article published Tuesday by the New York Times quoted US officials as saying there was no evidence that President Volodymyr Zelensky or his top aides were involved or that the perpetrators were acting at the behest of any Ukrainian government official.

The United States and NATO have called the September 26 attacks an “act of sabotage”, while Russia has blamed the West and called for an independent investigation. Neither of them has provided evidence.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov said the reports of the attacks were an attempt to divert attention.

(Reporting from Reuters offices; writing by Angus MacSwan; editing by Nick Macfie; editing in Spanish by Tomás Cobos)

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