After month-long siege, Russia retreats from Bakhmut amid Ukrainian counteroffensive

Moscow admitted on Friday that its forces had fallen north of the Ukrainian battle city of Bakhmut after a new offensive by Ukrainians, in a retreat that the head of Russia’s private army Wagner called a rout.

The setback for Russia, which follows similar reports of Ukrainian advances south of the city, suggests a coordinated push by Kyiv to encircle Russian forces in Bakhmut, Moscow’s main objective for months during the biggest battle of the war.

That means both sides are now reporting their biggest gains in Ukraine in six months, although Ukraine has provided few details and hinted at an officially planned counterattack.

Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said Ukraine had launched an offensive north of Bakhmut with more than 1,000 troops and up to 40 tanks, a scale that if confirmed would be Ukraine’s biggest offensive since November.

Russia has repelled 26 attacks but the forces in one area have fallen back to regroup in a more favorable position near the Berkhivka reservoir northwest of Bakhmut, Konashenkov said.

Yevgeny Prigozhin, the head of Wagner’s forces leading the campaign in the city, said in an audio message: “What Konashenkov described, unfortunately, is called ‘rout’ and not regrouping.”

In a separate video message, Prigozhin said the Ukrainians had seized the high ground overlooking Bakhmut and opened the main road to the city from the West.

“The loss of the Berkhivka reservoir – the loss of this abandoned area – five square kilometers, just today,” said Prigozhin.

“The enemy has completely freed the Chasiv Yar-Bakhmut road that has been blocked. The enemy can now use this road, and then they take high tactics where Bakhmut is located,” said Prigozhin, who has repeatedly denounced. The Russian regular military has for the past week failed to provide its troops in Bakhmut.

Reuters could not independently verify the situation in the region.

Ukraine usually refrains from commenting on operations while they are underway, and the military command said only that its forces had advanced about two kilometers near Bakhmut.

A Ukrainian unit said two days ago that it had defeated a Russian brigade in the southwestern part of the city, which had retaken land, and Prigozhin also said that the Russian brigade there had fled.

Prigozhin, whose army fought to expel the Ukrainian army from the western side of Bakhmut, has reached the north and south, which the army used to keep. The Russian defense ministry denied this.

‘The path ahead is not easy,’ said Zelenskyy

In Kostiantynivka, about 20 kilometers south-west of Bakhmut, firefighters tackled a fire in a house that was on fire after being hit by a Russian shell.

“It hit the roof and the roof collapsed. I rushed out and started shouting, asking for help,” said Oleksandr Lazorka, who lives next to the door. “We pulled out a blind woman – an old man, a blind man – from under the rubble and then the fire broke out.”

Ukraine’s 15-month war is at a turning point, after six months in which Kyiv kept its troops on the defensive as Russia waged a winter campaign that has sparked Europe’s bloodiest ground fighting since World War II but yielded few results. .

Since the beginning of this year, Kyiv has received hundreds of new Western tanks and armored vehicles, holding back in preparation for the long-awaited counteroffensive to recapture the occupied territories.

Ukrainian officials have dismissed suggestions that the attack was already underway: President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in an interview this week that Kyiv needed more time for equipment to arrive. Prigozhin is said to have lied and said that Bakhmut’s advance was the start of the Kyiv campaign.

Moscow had been preparing since last fall for the expected attack, and had built a line of anti-tank fortifications hundreds of miles ahead.

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It has begun to evacuate civilians who have been living near the conflict zone in the Zaporizhzhia province that is partially controlled by Ukraine.

“We used to go out and watch (shelling). Especially at night, you could see the flashes when they were launched,” said Lyudmila, a 22-year-old from Kamianka-Dniprovska now in temporary accommodation in Russian-controlled Ukraine. port of Berdyansk.

“We had a shell that landed nearby and when it landed the whole sky turned red,” he said.

In comments published on Friday, the commander of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet said its defenses were also being strengthened amid Ukrainian drone attacks targeting its home base, the Crimean port of Sevastopol.

Zelenskyy, who has rallied his country against the planned attack, said in a social media post that “our road ahead is not easy,” but that Ukraine “is now stronger than last year or in any other year of this fight for the freedom and independence of our country.”

He spoke on Friday with British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, thanking him for the promise of long-range cruise missiles. Britain unveiled the missile on Thursday, breaking one of the biggest Western taboos about the weaponry which was previously considered to carry too great a risk of provoking Russia.