Ukraine is preparing for a counter-offensive. Ukrainian ground forces commander Oleksandr Syrskyj said the fierce battle for Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine helped buy time to prepare a counter-offensive against the Russian army. Meanwhile, the fighters of the Russian mercenary group Wagner were already near the center of Bakhmut, according to their chief.
“The real heroes are now the defenders who carry the Eastern Front on their shoulders,” Syrskyj said. The defense ministry in Kiev said on Saturday that Ukrainian soldiers had repelled “more than 100 enemy attacks” along the eastern front the previous day. Some experts had previously questioned the usefulness of further fighting over Bakhmut. While observers question the city’s strategic importance, the battle has now taken on symbolic value for both sides.
Kuleba fears the same fate for other cities
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba told “Bild am Sonntag” newspaper that the political and military leaders agreed to continue defending the city. “If you withdraw from Bachmut, what will that change? Russia would capture Bakhmut and continue its offensive on Chasiv Yar, so that any nearest city behind Bakhmut could suffer the same fate as Bakhmut,” Kuleba declared. But the longer Bachmut is defended, the greater the “probability that other cities will not suffer the same fate,” the foreign minister added.
“Infantry seems inexhaustible in scope and time”
Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Olha Stefanishyna admitted in the French newspaper Journal du Dimanche that it would be “difficult for us to resist”. But she was referring to Moscow’s losses. “We estimate that the Russian army has already lost 150,000 men in its military offensives on our territory since last year. The mob of their infantry is a terrifying weapon, seemingly inexhaustible in scope and time,” added Stefanishyna.
Wagner group in the center of Bakhmut
The mercenaries of the Wagner group play a central role in the battle for Bachmut. This week, the mercenary stated that they had taken the eastern part of Bakhmut. Wagner leader Yevgeny Prigozhin announced renewed progress by his fighters in a video released on Saturday. “This is the city administration building, this is the center of the city,” Prigozhin said in the video published in the Telegram online service, pointing at a building from the roof of a house in Bakhmut. “It is one kilometer and 200 meters away. This is the area where the fighting is taking place,” explains Prigozhin. His statements could not be independently verified at first.
The main thing now is to get ammunition and “move forward,” Prigozhin said. For weeks, the Wagner boss has accused the Russian army command of not providing his fighters with enough ammunition. In his video, he again attacked Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and Chief of General Staff Valery Gerasimov, ironically calling them “extraordinary military commanders.”
Destroyed important bridges over the Bakhmutka River
Britain’s Ministry of Defense confirmed on Saturday that the Wagner mercenaries had taken control of “most of the east” of Bachmut for the past four days. According to the ministry, Ukrainian forces still control the west of the city and have destroyed key bridges over the Bakhmutka River, which flows through the heart of the city.
At least three people were killed and two others injured in a Russian attack in the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson, authorities said. The pro-Russian mayor of Donetsk in eastern Ukraine said Ukrainian shelling killed two people, including a child.
Source: Krone
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