The Ukrainian army is not giving up on the enemy forces in Bakhmout. But the pressure is getting harder and harder to keep up. The Russian paramilitary group Wagner claimed on Wednesday a new advance in this battle which has been going on since the summer with the capture of the eastern part of the city, the epicenter of bloody fighting and whose fall would leave “the way free” to the Russian army. to advance in eastern Ukraine, according to the Ukrainian president.
“The Wagner units have taken the entire eastern part of Bakhmout, all that is east of the Bakhmoutka River” crossing the city, said the boss of the group Evguéni Prigojine. In its latest report, published on Tuesday, the Institute for the Study of War (ISW), a group of American experts, also estimated that the Kremlin troops had “likely” captured this eastern part, after a “controlled withdrawal” of Ukrainian forces. AFP could not confirm these statements from an independent source.
Ukrainians determined to hold
For his part, Volodymyr Zelensky assured that his troops were determined to hold the city, in an interview with American television CNN broadcast on Wednesday. “I had a meeting with the chief of staff yesterday and the chief military commanders (…) and they all said that we had to stay strong in Bakhmout,” he said. “Of course, we have to think about the lives of our soldiers. But we must do all we can while we receive weapons, supplies and our army prepares for the counter-offensive,” he continued.
After Bakhmout, the Russians “could go further. They could go to Kramatorsk, they could go to Sloviansk, the way would be free” for them “to other cities of Ukraine”, warned the Ukrainian president.
Threat of encirclement
Despite fierce Ukrainian defense, Russia promised it would fight until Bakhmout was captured, deeming the city crucial to its offensive into Ukraine. Bakhmout “is an important knot [des lignes] defense of Ukrainian soldiers in the Donbass,” Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said on Tuesday, saying his capture would allow “new offensive operations in depth.”
After recent advances, the Russians seem to control access to the city to the north, south and east, threatening encirclement. Wagner’s troops led this attack at the cost of very heavy losses, even by Evguéni Prigojine’s own admission. The latter is in open conflict with the Russian military hierarchy, which he accuses of not delivering enough ammunition to his men. According to him, the Russian lines would crumble if his troops were to retreat from Bakhmout.
