Tanks move on a road as the Russian-Ukrainian war continues in Kostiantynivka, Ukraine on February 08, 2023.
Marek M. Berezowski Anadolu Agency Getty Images
Ukrainian forces are holding defenses along the front line in Donetsk, including the besieged city of Bakhmut, with the fiercest fighting for the towns of Vuhledar and Maryinka, Kyiv’s top military commander said on Saturday.
Valeriy Zaluzhnyi, the Commander-in-Chief of Ukraine’s Armed Forces, said Russia was carrying out about 50 attacks a day in Donetsk, a region in southeastern Ukraine that it has been trying to fully control.
“Fierce fighting continues in the areas of Vuhledar and Maryinka,” Zaluzhnyi said in a Telegram message after a call with US General Mark Milley.
“We reliably hold the defense. In some areas in front we have managed to regain the position before we lost it and gained a foothold.”
Zaluzhnyi does not specify where the benefits lie. He added that Ukraine continues to hold Bakhmut, “declaring” the front line in the city.
The head of Russia’s Wagner mercenary group said on Saturday that his forces were facing fierce resistance around Bakhmut from Ukrainian defenders.
On Friday, Britain said Russian forces had gained an advantage north of Bakhmut, but were finding it more difficult to attack Vuhledar, about 150 kilometers (93 miles) further south.
It is impossible to independently establish the area of control on each side, as the fighting on the front line has been going on for months, what the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine called “crawling” trying to move little by little.
Ukrainian military analyst Oleh Zhdanov said that despite Russian pressure on Maryinka, a small, almost deserted and ruined town that has been on the front lines since the start of the war a year ago, Ukrainian forces are holding ground.
“The battle is in the center of the city, but nothing has changed in the last 24 hours,” Zhdanov said in a social media video.
Wagner’s head, Yevgeny Prigozhin, said it would take Moscow two years to control all of Ukraine’s Donetsk and Luhansk regions. Moscow last year claimed the two were “republics” of Russia, a move condemned by most United Nations countries as illegal.
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and other military officials have been in a diplomatic marathon in recent months trying to secure more Western weapons and fighter jets.
“The key to success on the battlefield is effective fire damage, which requires appropriate weapons and ammunition,” Zaluzhnyi said.