This video grab taken from a shooting by AFPTV shows an aerial view of destructions in town of Bakhmut on February 27, 2023. – Ukraine said on February 28, 2023 its forces were under pressure in Bakhmut, a nearly-destroyed city within the eastern Donetsk region that Russia has been attempting to seize for months.
– | Afp | Getty Images
Russian artillery pounded the last routes out of Bakhmut on Friday, aiming to finish the encirclement of the besieged Ukrainian city and produce Moscow closer to its first major victory in half a 12 months after the bloodiest battle of the war.
The top of Russia’s Wagner private army said town, which has been blasted to ruins in Russia’s greater than seven-month onslaught, was almost completely surrounded with just one road still open for Ukraine’s troops.
Reuters observed intense Russian shelling of routes leading west out of Bakhmut, an apparent try to block Ukrainian forces’ access out and in of town. A bridge within the adjoining town of Khromove was damaged by Russian tank shelling.
Ukrainian soldiers were working to repair damaged roads and more troops were heading toward the frontline in an indication that Ukraine was not yet ready to provide up town. To the west, Ukrainians were digging latest trenches for defensive positions.
Russia’s RIA state news agency released a video showing what it said were Wagner fighters walking by a damaged industrial facility. One fighter is heard saying Ukraine’s army is destroying infrastructure in settlements near Bakhmut to forestall the Russian encirclement.
The commander of Ukraine’s ground forces, Oleksandr Syrskyi, visited Bakhmut on Friday for briefings with local commanders on how one can boost the defense capability of frontline forces.
Denys Yaroslavskyi, commander of a Ukrainian army unit at Bakhmut, told Espreso TV that parts of some units had been ordered to rotate to more secured positions, describing the situation for the reason that morning as “a slaughterhouse on each side.”
A Russian victory in Bakhmut, with a pre-war population of about 70,000, would give it the primary major prize in a costly winter offensive, after it called up tons of of hundreds of reservists last 12 months. Russia says it will be a stepping stone to completing the capture of the Donbas industrial region, one among Moscow’s most vital objectives.
Before the war Bakhmut was known for salt and gypsum mines. Ukraine says town has little strategic value and the massive casualties Russia has suffered attempting to take Bakhmut could shape the course of the conflict.
‘Pincers are closing’
“Units of the private military company Wagner have practically surrounded Bakhmut,” Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin said in a video that Reuters determined was filmed on a rooftop in a village some 7 km (4 miles) north of town center.
“Just one route (out) is left,” he said. “The pincers are closing.”
He called on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to order a retreat from Bakhmut to save lots of his soldiers’ lives. The camera panned to indicate three captured Ukrainians — a grey-bearded older man and two boys — asking to be allowed to go home.
Robert Brovdi, the commander of a Ukrainian drone unit lively in Bakhmut who goes by the name “Madyar,” said in a video posted on social media that his unit had been ordered to withdraw immediately. He said he had been fighting there for 110 days.
Volodymyr Nazarenko, a deputy commander within the National Guard of Ukraine, told Ukrainian NV Radio the situation was “critical,” with fighting “around the clock.”
“They take no account of their losses in attempting to take town by assault. The duty of our forces in Bakhmut is to inflict as many losses on the enemy as possible. Every meter of Ukrainian land costs tons of of lives to the enemy,” he said.
“There are a lot of more Russians here than we have now ammunition to destroy them.”
More U.S. arms
The past few days have seen alarm in Russia at its own potential vulnerabilities after Moscow reported numerous drone attacks on targets deep inside Russia, followed by what it said was an armed cross-border raid on Thursday.
President Vladimir Putin told his Security Council on Friday to step up “anti-terrorism measures.”
Meanwhile, Zelenskyy visited wounded soldiers at a military hospital in Lviv. One, shaking the president’s hand from bed, apologized that he couldn’t arise. “That is OK,” Zelenskyy said. “The time will come and you’ll rise.”
Zelenskyy gave no details of the fighting in Bakhmut during a night video address by which he thanked troops for “firmly and bravely” defending town.
In Washington, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced one other round of military aid for Ukraine, a package of ammunition and other support valued at $400 million.
America has provided nearly $32 billion in aid to Ukraine since Russia’s invasion on Feb. 24, 2022.
On the White House, U.S. President Joe Biden thanked visiting German Chancellor Olaf Scholz for his “profound” support of Ukraine. Scholz said it was vital to send the message that backing Ukraine will proceed “so long as it takes and so long as is crucial.”
After their meeting, the White House said the pair reiterated their commitment to impose costs on Russia over its invasion of Ukraine.
Germany makes Leopard tanks promised in January and expected to be the core of a latest Ukrainian armored force.
Scholz has been criticized by some Western allies for taking a cautious public stance toward arming Ukraine, although he has overseen an enormous shift in policy from a rustic that was Russia’s biggest energy customer before the war.
Kyiv’s ambassador in Berlin, Oleksii Makeiev, said Germany was now taking more of a leadership role in arming Ukraine.
Moscow, which says it has annexed nearly a fifth of Ukraine, accuses pro-Western Kyiv of posing a security threat. Ukraine and its allies say the invasion was an unprovoked war of conquest.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, pointing to U.S. military interventions across the globe, accused the US of hypocrisy on Friday after Blinken said Moscow can’t be allowed to wage war in Ukraine with impunity. The 2 men met briefly on the sidelines of a G-20 foreign ministers meeting in India.