Ukraine reported on Tuesday an “extremely tense” situation around Bakhmout, at the epicenter of fighting in the east of the country, where Russian troops are trying to surround the city.
In Russia, the army for its part reported having shot down several Ukrainian drones which targeted civilian infrastructure, without causing any damage. For the first time, one of them crashed in the Moscow region.
In the evening, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, in his daily address, said that “the greatest difficulties, as before, are in Bakhmut (…) Russia does not count its men at all, constantly sending them to the assault on our positions. The intensity of the fighting is only increasing”.
Despite a strategic importance disputed by experts, Bakhmout has become a symbol of the struggle for control of the industrial region of Donbass. Mr. Zelensky, who went there in December, had sworn to defend this fortress city “as long as possible”.
“The situation around Bakhmout is extremely tense,” the commander of the Ukrainian land forces, Oleksandre Syrsky, had noted earlier in the day, quoted by the official press center of the army.
According to him, the Russian paramilitary group Wagner, on the front line in this battle, is trying to “break through the defense of our troops and encircle the city”.
Wagner’s boss, Evguéni Prigojine, has claimed in turn in recent weeks the capture of localities around Bakhmout. Soledar fell in January, then Krasna Gora in February, and Saturday Yaguidné, located at the gates of the city.
As a result of this slow Russian push, three of the four routes allowing the Ukrainians to supply Bakhmout have been cut off, leaving only the one leading west towards Chassiv Iar, south of which the Russians are also trying to advance. .
Bakhmout, which had 70,000 inhabitants before the war, was largely destroyed by the fighting which caused heavy casualties on both sides. Some 5,000 civilians, including about 140 children, remain there despite the danger, authorities said.
Mr. Zelensky had acknowledged Monday evening that the situation around Bakhmout was becoming “more and more complicated” for the Ukrainian soldiers, who described scenes reminiscent of those of the First World War.
Ukrainian soldiers interviewed by AFP in Bakhmout on Monday said they were keeping their spirits up. “We can’t know the whole operational situation but we are here, we didn’t run away,” said a 44-year-old soldier whose nom de guerre is “Kaï”.
“Not only Bakhmut but Crimea and all the rest: we will get everything back,” added “Died”, 45, as he puffed on a cigarette.
“Fox”, 40, is more pessimistic: “I understand what country we are fighting against (…) They have smart people there, people who know how to fight. They think, they learn, from same way as us.
“I think Bakhmout will probably fall,” he said, citing a lack of ammunition and manpower on the Ukrainian side.
Russia for its part claimed that a Ukrainian drone crashed on Tuesday about 100 kilometers from Moscow, not far from a gas compressor station. Three others were shot elsewhere in the country, without causing any damage.
Several incidents involving drones have occurred in recent months on Russian territory, sometimes very far from the front in Ukraine, but this is the first time that a drone has been reported near the capital.
These clashes are taking place after the war in Ukraine entered its second year last week.
On the diplomatic front, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, an ally of Moscow who has so far refused a direct engagement in the conflict other than by letting Russian forces operate from his territory, arrived in Beijing on Tuesday.
China, Moscow’s partner on the international scene, last week proposed a 12-point document in which it urges Russians and Ukrainians to dialogue, but also insists on respect for territorial integrity and opposes any recourse to nuclear weapon.
While Westerners generally greeted this Chinese diplomatic intervention with skepticism – French President Emmanuel Macron announced this weekend that he would visit Beijing in April – President Zelensky said he was ready to “work” with Beijing and announced his intention to also meet his counterpart Xi Jinping.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg indicated that the member countries of the Alliance “agreed” for Ukraine to become a member, as she claims, but that this objective would be achieved “in the long term”.
28/02/2023 23:14:59 – Kiev (Ukraine) (AFP) © 2023 AFP