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Ukraine’s military said it made fresh progress on Wednesday in heavy fighting near the eastern city of Bakhmut, and Russia continued to send in new units including paratroopers.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that there are ongoing Russian attacks in several regions, noting in a video address that the attacks show the need to increase international pressure on Moscow.
The remarks about Bakhmut by military spokesman Serhiy Cherevatyi are the latest by Ukrainian figures in the past week to indicate that Russian forces have been pushed back in some areas.
“We successfully carried out defensive operations, counterattacks, and today our units have penetrated up to 500 meters in some areas,” he told Ukrainian television.
There is no sign Russia is running out of ammunition, Ukraine says
He said there were no signs Russian forces were short of ammunition, contradicting statements by Yevgeny Prigozhin, head of the Wagner mercenary group that led the Bakhmut offensive.
“The enemy is trying to capture the city at will, attacking all systems and calibers,” said Cherevatyi. “They moved a new unit [to Bakhmut]especially the paratroopers, in an effort to achieve some intermediate success.”
Moscow sees Bakhmut, a city of about 70,000 before the Russian invasion, as a stepping stone to take over the rest of the eastern Donbas industrial region that borders Russia.
Ukrainian officials have signaled that the advance around Bakhmut is not part of a broader counteroffensive planned by Kyiv to push back Russian forces.
Moscow did not immediately comment on Cherevatyi’s remarks although Russia’s RIA Novosti news agency quoted Russia’s Defense Minister as saying that its forces were continuing to fight to retake the western region of Bakhmut.
Retired US Army Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt said the city of Bakhmut had no strategic significance in the wider context of the war. “I think it’s just the two commanders – Putin and Zelensky – trying to outdo each other to preach to them the main victory and let this war go.”
The leader of the Wagner Group criticized the Russian commander
Prigozhin, in an audio statement, appeared to confirm that Ukrainian forces now have an advantage in Bakhmut and he again criticized the Russian commander.
“Despite the fact that the enemy has only a few percent of the area in Bakhmut, surrounding the enemy seems impossible,” he said. “As a result of the advance of the enemy … the Russian paratroopers have taken up a position that is advantageous to the enemy.”
Reuters could not verify the battlefield situation.
Ukrainian military analyst Oleksandr Musiyenko said the long battle was similar to the defeat of the Soviet army at Stalingrad in 1943 after five months of fighting.
“Russian troops have lost the initiative on the flanks – our troops have been cut off from the flanks,” Musiyenko told NV Radio.
Two Canadians serving in the Ukrainian International Legion were killed in the fighting in Bakhmut. Cole Zelenco, 21, of St.
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