Oleg Shiryaev, a Ukrainian battalion commander, warned his men in the nearby trenches that Russian forces were advancing across the field towards a wooded area outside the town of Bakhmut.
The head of the 228th Battalion of the 127th Kharkov Territorial Defense Brigade then ordered a mortar team to prepare and a target was set.
A mortar tube emitted a loud orange pop, and an explosion tore a new crater into an already pockmarked hillside.
“We are advancing, carrying out the combat tasks assigned to us by the higher command,” Shiryaev said after at least one drone image showed a downed Russian fighter. “Everything is coming out little by little.”
Russian forces declared victory in the eastern city last month after the longest and deadliest battle since their full-scale invasion of Ukraine began 15 months ago.
But Ukrainian defenders like Shiryaev are not backing down. On the contrary, they keep up the pressure and continue the fight from positions on Bakhmut’s western periphery.
The setback gives the commanders in Moscow something else to think about before a highly anticipated Ukrainian counter-offensive appears to be taking shape.
Ukrainian Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maliar said on Thursday that Russia was trying to create the impression of calm around Bakhmut, but in fact artillery shelling continues at levels similar to those at the height of the battle for the taking of the city.
The struggle, he said, is evolving into a new phase. From the Kremlin’s perspective, the area around Bakhmut is only part of the more than 1,000-kilometer (621-mile) front line that the Russian military must hold.
That task could be made more difficult by the withdrawal of the Wagner Group mercenaries who helped take control of the city. They will be replaced by Russian soldiers.
For the Ukrainian forces, the recent work has been opportunistic: trying to wrest small advances from the enemy and seize strategic positions, especially on two flanks, the northwest and southwest, where the Ukrainian 3rd Separate Assault Brigade has been active, according to officials. .
Russia had envisioned the capture of Bakhmut as a partial fulfillment of its ambition to seize control of the eastern Donbas region, Ukraine’s industrial heartland.
Now his forces have been forced to regroup, rotate fighters, and rearm just to hold the city.
Wagner’s owner announced his withdrawal after acknowledging the loss of more than 20,000 of his men.
Bakhmut’s fate, which lies largely in ruins, has been clouded in recent days by near-nightly attacks on Kiev, a series of unclaimed drone strikes near Moscow and growing expectations that the government of Ukraine try to catch up.
But the battle for the city could still have a lingering impact. Moscow has made the most of his capture, epitomized by triumphalism in the Russian media.
Any loss of control by Russia would be a political embarrassment for President Vladimir Putin.
According to the criteria of The Trust Project