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Russian forces launched a relentless offensive in Bakhmut on Wednesday, trying to encircle and storm the small eastern Ukrainian town and claim its first major prize in more than half a year after some of the bloodiest battles of the war.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy accused Moscow of throwing a wave of people into the battle in Bakhmut with no regard for their lives, saying the fighting was “hardest” but the city’s defense was vital.
“The enemy continues to advance. The attack on the city of Bakhmut continues,” the general staff of the armed forces of Ukraine said in a Facebook post on Wednesday evening.
The leader of Wagner’s Russian mercenary group said the Ukrainians were putting up “furious resistance” trying to capture the city by any means necessary.
Russia also said it had repelled a massive drone attack in Crimea, a peninsula its forces seized from Ukraine and claimed to annex in 2014. On Tuesday Moscow accused Kyiv of launching a series of drone attacks on targets in Russia itself.
Pressure from the north, south
Reuters was able to reach Bakhmut from the west on Friday – evidence that the city has not been surrounded despite Russian forces pressing from the north and south to close the last access route.
Flames and smoke rose into the sky from the burning building. Gunfire and explosions were constantly ringing in the sky. Ukrainian armored vehicles rumbled through the streets, while stray dogs trudged through the mud and debris.
A Ukrainian soldier said in a video posted Wednesday on the Telegram messaging app that it was “quite calm” in Bakhmut.
“We (have) silenced the enemy a bit…There was a gunfight on the outskirts. A few explosions, cannons flying,” serviceman and vlogger Andrii Babychev said, blasts reverberating behind him.
“But we are standing in Bakhmut. No one is planning to retreat anywhere. We are standing. Bakhmut is Ukraine. Glory to Ukraine!” said.
Reuters was able to confirm the location as Bakhmut from the appearance of the building in the video, which matches the file image, although the video was recorded on Wednesday.
Only a few thousand residents remain inside the devastated city from a pre-war population of around 70,000.
The ‘furious fight’ in Bakhmut
The area around Bakhmut has been one part of the front where Moscow has made notable gains during the winter offensive that has seen what both sides describe as the deadliest fighting of the year-old war.
In an audio message on social media, Yevgeny Prigozhin, whose personal army Wagner has led the Russian offensive there, said the Ukrainian military was throwing extra reserves into the war, “trying to hold the city with all its might.”
“Tens of thousands of Ukrainian army fighters put up a furious resistance. Bloody battles are escalating,” Prigozhin said.
Since being expelled from some areas in the second half of 2022, Russian forces have been replenished by hundreds of thousands of reserves. Ukraine, for its part, has stuck mainly to the defense over the past three months, hoping that the Russian attack will exhaust its forces before Kyiv launches a counter-attack with new heavy weapons promised by the West.
Russia says seizing Bakhmut will pave the way for seizing all of the surrounding industrial areas of Donbas, one of its main war aims. Kyiv says the destroyed city has limited strategic value, but the losses are so great that they could lead to future wars.
Wagner has recruited tens of thousands of convicts from prisons to fight in Ukraine and his boss Prigozhin has accused regular Russian military brass of treason for not adequately supplying his troops.
Wagner received a real show of Kremlin support on Wednesday when Russia’s lower house of parliament, the State Duma, discussed extending censorship laws to include 15-year prison sentences for those who violate “voluntary formations.”
Spring is on the way, the conflict remains
Ukrainians and Russians traditionally consider March 1 as the beginning of spring. Already, the frozen ground has melted ahead, approaching the season of sucking black mud – “bezdorizhzhia” in Ukraine, “rasputitsa” in Russia – which is well known in military history for destroying invading armies in the region.
Ukrainians announced that the arrival of milder weather proved that Russia failed to “freeze” them in order to send missiles and drone attacks on energy infrastructure.
“They wanted to freeze us and throw us into darkness. We survived! Today is the first day of spring. Live, light, love humble death. Ukraine will win,” Minister of Defense Oleksii Reznikov tweeted.
Putin’s close allies, president Xi Jinping of China and Alexander Lukashenko of Belarus, called for the “fastest possible” peace deal for Ukraine at talks in Beijing on Wednesday, Belarusian news agency Belta reported.
China has become increasingly vocal in calling for peace as the conflict drags on and has refused to provide weapons to Moscow after US officials said Beijing was considering doing so.
The year-old war took center stage on the eve of the G20 foreign ministers’ meeting in New Delhi on Saturday with the EU’s foreign policy chief saying success will be measured by what can be done to end the conflict.
Kyiv described Russia’s actions as an aggressive, unprovoked war to crush the independent country, which like Russia was part of the Moscow-dominated Soviet Union until its breakup in 1991. Moscow blames the West for provoking what it calls “special military operations” to eliminate security threats, and prolonging by supporting Kyiv with arms.
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