A tank moves on a road as Russia-Ukraine war continues in Kostiantynivka, Ukraine on February 08, 2023.
Marek M. Berezowski | Anadolu Agency | Getty Images
Ukraine’s forces hold defense along the frontline in Donetsk, including of the besieged town of Bakhmut, with the fiercest battles raging for the cities of Vuhledar and Maryinka, Kyiv’s top military commander said on Saturday.
Valeriy Zaluzhnyi, commander-in-chief of Ukraine’s Armed Forces, said Russia carries out some 50 attacks day by day in Donetsk, a region in Ukraine’s southeast that Moscow has been attempting to occupy fully.
“Fierce fighting continues in the world of Vuhledar and Maryinka,” Zaluzhnyi said in a Telegram message after a call with U.S. General Mark Milley.
“We reliably hold the defense. In some areas of the front we’ve managed to regain previously lost positions and gained a foothold.”
Zaluzhnyi didn’t specify where the gains were. He added that Ukraine continues to carry Bakhmut, tying to “stabilize” the frontline across the town.
The pinnacle of Russia’s Wagner mercenary group said on Saturday that his forces are facing fierce resistance around Bakhmut from Ukrainian defenders.
On Friday, Britain said Russian forces were making gains north of Bakhmut, but were having a tougher time attacking Vuhledar, some 150 kilometres (93 miles) further south.
It’s unimaginable to independently establish the control areas of both sides, as fighting along the frontline has slowed in recent months to what Ukraine defense ministry calls “crawling” attempts to maneuver little by little.
Ukraine’s military analyst Oleh Zhdanov said that despite Russia’s pressure in Maryinka, a virtually deserted and destroyed small city that has been on the frontline because the start of the war a 12 months ago, Ukrainian forces managed to carry the bottom.
“Fighting is occurring in the town center, but there have been no changes over the past 24 hours,” Zhdanov said in a social media video.
Wagner’s head, Yevgeny Prigozhin, said it could take two years for Moscow to manage the entire of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions in Ukraine. Moscow last 12 months claimed each as “republics” of Russia, in a move condemned by most countries of the United Nations as illegal.
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and other military officials have been on a diplomatic marathon in recent months attempting to secure more Western weapons and fighter aircraft.
“The important thing to success on the battlefield is effective fire damage, which requires an appropriate amount of weapons and ammunition,” Zaluzhnyi said.