Ukrainian troops and civilians on Saturday fled the “hell on earth” that Bakhmut has turn out to be as Russian forces inched closer to taking the battered eastern city seen as key to Moscow’s eastern push.
At the least one woman was killed and two men were badly injured by Russian airstrikes while attempting to cross a makeshift bridge out of Bakhmut, the middle of intense fighting within the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine for months.
Two bridges in town were demolished over the past two days, including a span connecting town’s last principal supply path to town of Chasiv Yar, the U.K. Ministry of Defense said in an intelligence update Saturday.
Town was “under increasingly severe pressure,” the report said, with each Russian Army and Wagner Group forces advancing into the suburbs, making it possible to attack Ukrainian forces from three sides.
Individually, the top of the Wagner mercenary force — which infamously recruited convicts from Russian prisons to hitch its forces in exchange for freedom — said that Bakhmut is “practically surrounded.”
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Yevgeny Prigozhin, a Russian oligarch and founding father of the mercenary group, called on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to withdraw his forces from Bakhmut in a video recorded on a rooftop 4 miles north of town.
“Just one route [out of the city] is left,” Prigozhin said within the video posted on Telegram. “The pincers are closing.”
After Prigozhin spoke, the camera panned to what look like three captured Ukrainians, two boys and an older bearded man, who then ask to go home.
The Institute for the Study of War, a Washington-based think tank, said that a Ukrainian retreat from Bakhmut appears imminent.
Ukrainian troops might “conduct a limited and controlled withdrawal from particularly difficult sections of eastern Bakhmut” if the military deems it vital, the group wrote in an assessment of the Russian offensive.
Russian forces have been attempting to take Bakhmut since May 2022 and have suffered “devastating casualties in the method,” the think tank added.
Losing town to enemy forces would cause supply issues for Ukraine, but its strategic value is dwarfed by the potential symbolic importance of what would mark Russia’s first victory in months, following a bloody stalemate within the region throughout the winter.
Casualties have also been mounting in Ukraine, where a minimum of 8,006 civilians were confirmed killed and 13,287 injured since Russia invaded a yr ago, the United Nations Human Rights Office said Saturday, adding that the actual figures are likely higher. Estimates for troop deaths vary widely but Western intelligence sources estimate that either side has suffered about 150,000 casualties on the battlefield.
In Bakhmut, a police group often called “Dark Angels” has been removing the dead while their counterparts, the “White Angels” scramble to evacuate the remaining children and elderly from the ravaged city, the Observer reported.
Oleksandra Hacrylko, a police major with the White Angels, said that the group’s seek for endangered children has led to rumors that authorities are taking kids from parents who refuse to go away.
“There have been cases of individuals hiding children because they’ve heard rumors that the police will take their children by force,” she said, insisting that the rumors usually are not true and that they’ll only evacuate children with the consent of their parents.
Moscow’s forces Saturday also continued targeting other regions with airstrikes.
Zelensky posted a picture of a destroyed apartment constructing in Zaporizhzhia, a region home to Europe’s largest nuclear power plant.
At the least 11 died within the strike, The Telegraph reported.
Individually, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov was ridiculed during a speech on Moscow’s energy policy when he claimed the war was “launched against” his country.
“The war, which we are attempting to stop, which was launched against us using the…” Lavrov said on the G20 Summit in Latest Dheli, India, before being cut off by laughter.
“Ukrainian people, after all, influenced the policy of Russia, including energy policy,” Lavrov continued before he was stopped by more laughter and an audience member yelling “Come on.”
Ukrainian troops and civilians on Saturday fled the “hell on earth” that Bakhmut has turn out to be as Russian forces inched closer to taking the battered eastern city seen as key to Moscow’s eastern push.
At the least one woman was killed and two men were badly injured by Russian airstrikes while attempting to cross a makeshift bridge out of Bakhmut, the middle of intense fighting within the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine for months.
Two bridges in town were demolished over the past two days, including a span connecting town’s last principal supply path to town of Chasiv Yar, the U.K. Ministry of Defense said in an intelligence update Saturday.
Town was “under increasingly severe pressure,” the report said, with each Russian Army and Wagner Group forces advancing into the suburbs, making it possible to attack Ukrainian forces from three sides.
Individually, the top of the Wagner mercenary force — which infamously recruited convicts from Russian prisons to hitch its forces in exchange for freedom — said that Bakhmut is “practically surrounded.”
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Yevgeny Prigozhin, a Russian oligarch and founding father of the mercenary group, called on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to withdraw his forces from Bakhmut in a video recorded on a rooftop 4 miles north of town.
“Just one route [out of the city] is left,” Prigozhin said within the video posted on Telegram. “The pincers are closing.”
After Prigozhin spoke, the camera panned to what look like three captured Ukrainians, two boys and an older bearded man, who then ask to go home.
The Institute for the Study of War, a Washington-based think tank, said that a Ukrainian retreat from Bakhmut appears imminent.
Ukrainian troops might “conduct a limited and controlled withdrawal from particularly difficult sections of eastern Bakhmut” if the military deems it vital, the group wrote in an assessment of the Russian offensive.
Russian forces have been attempting to take Bakhmut since May 2022 and have suffered “devastating casualties in the method,” the think tank added.
Losing town to enemy forces would cause supply issues for Ukraine, but its strategic value is dwarfed by the potential symbolic importance of what would mark Russia’s first victory in months, following a bloody stalemate within the region throughout the winter.
Casualties have also been mounting in Ukraine, where a minimum of 8,006 civilians were confirmed killed and 13,287 injured since Russia invaded a yr ago, the United Nations Human Rights Office said Saturday, adding that the actual figures are likely higher. Estimates for troop deaths vary widely but Western intelligence sources estimate that either side has suffered about 150,000 casualties on the battlefield.
In Bakhmut, a police group often called “Dark Angels” has been removing the dead while their counterparts, the “White Angels” scramble to evacuate the remaining children and elderly from the ravaged city, the Observer reported.
Oleksandra Hacrylko, a police major with the White Angels, said that the group’s seek for endangered children has led to rumors that authorities are taking kids from parents who refuse to go away.
“There have been cases of individuals hiding children because they’ve heard rumors that the police will take their children by force,” she said, insisting that the rumors usually are not true and that they’ll only evacuate children with the consent of their parents.
Moscow’s forces Saturday also continued targeting other regions with airstrikes.
Zelensky posted a picture of a destroyed apartment constructing in Zaporizhzhia, a region home to Europe’s largest nuclear power plant.
At the least 11 died within the strike, The Telegraph reported.
Individually, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov was ridiculed during a speech on Moscow’s energy policy when he claimed the war was “launched against” his country.
“The war, which we are attempting to stop, which was launched against us using the…” Lavrov said on the G20 Summit in Latest Dheli, India, before being cut off by laughter.
“Ukrainian people, after all, influenced the policy of Russia, including energy policy,” Lavrov continued before he was stopped by more laughter and an audience member yelling “Come on.”
