At the heart of the fighting for months, the city of Bakhmout could quickly fall, warned Wednesday the Secretary General of NATO. “We cannot exclude that Bakhmout will finally fall in the coming days,” declared Jens Stoltenberg, on the sidelines of a meeting of European defense ministers in Stockholm.
The fall of the city, whose eastern part was claimed by the Russian paramilitary group Wagner on Wednesday, would leave “the way free” for the Russian army in eastern Ukraine, according to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. The Secretary General of NATO has minimized the strategic importance of the city, which Russia has sworn to conquer despite heavy losses.
“Do not underestimate Russia”
“It doesn’t necessarily reflect any turning point in the war,” Stoltenberg told reporters. “But it underlines that we should not underestimate Russia. We must continue to support Ukraine. According to Moscow, the capture of the city would allow “new offensive operations in depth”.
Meeting in Stockholm with Jens Stoltenberg and their Ukrainian counterpart, the defense ministers of the European Union are refining on Wednesday a plan for the delivery of shells and ammunition to Ukraine, despite stocks under pressure. A first emergency component worth one billion euros is planned, in the face of the crying need of the Ukrainian army for artillery shells.
