In the longest and bloodiest battle of the war to date, the Ukrainian army has announced an advance. In the area around the hard-fought city of Bakhmut in the east of the country, Kiev says it has recaptured 20 square kilometers from Russia in recent days.
“In recent days, our soldiers have liberated about 20 square kilometers north and south of the suburbs of Bakhmut,” Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maljar said on Tuesday. Within Bakhmut, however, “the enemy” had progressed further, Maljar added.
Russia destroys the whole city
According to Maljar, Russia is destroying the entire city with its artillery strikes. The commander of the Ukrainian army, Olexander Syrskyj, described the city, which had been fought over for months, as a “mousetrap” for Russian troops. “After Bachmut, the Wagner mercenaries crawled like rats into a mousetrap,” said the 57-year-old on Tuesday during another visit to the front area. Using “active defence”, the Ukrainian units counterattacked in several sections near Bakhmut.
“The enemy has more resources, but we are destroying their plans,” said the colonel general. He then decorated several soldiers with medals. Earlier, units of the Ukrainian army northwest and southwest of Bakhmut had pushed back Russian troops, some of them several kilometers.
Wagner boss publishes video
On the other hand, the head of Wagner’s private Russian army, Yevgeny Prigozhin, again claimed that he was making further progress in capturing the last streets in the city of Bakhmut. He also published a video on Tuesday in which he showed the parts still occupied by Ukrainian troops on a map.
Ukraine has been defending itself against the Russian invasion for more than 14 months. The city of Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk region, which once had a population of more than 70,000, has been at the center of fighting for months and is now largely destroyed and abandoned. The battle for the strategically important city is the bloodiest and longest of the war to date. The Ukrainian army had already reported a successful advance into areas around Bakhmut on Monday.
Source: Krone
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