Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has doubled down on his defense of Bakhmut despite signals to withdraw from the eastern city which is nearly surrounded by Russian troops.
In a video speech overnight, Zelenskyy said he had met with top generals who “agreed” advising him “not to retreat but to strengthen”.
It is not uncommon for the president to refer to the advice of the commander-in-chief. The intervention comes amid reports of concern among western officials, analysts and some frontline Ukrainian forces about the merits of holding the city despite the costs. US defense secretary Lloyd Austin said on Monday that the withdrawal from Bakhmut should not be considered an “operational or strategic setback”.
Zelenskyy said he had ordered General Valeriy Zaluzhnyi, the chief of Ukraine’s armed forces, “to find suitable troops to help the people of Bakhmut”.
“There is no part of Ukraine that can be said to be left alone,” Zelenskyy added.
The battle for the city, known among Ukrainian forces as “Fortress Bakhmut”, has been going on for nearly nine months, one of the toughest since Russian president Vladimir Putin launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
The heavily bombed city has been attacked by Russian forces from the east, north and south.
“Ukraine Defense Bakhmut continues to damage forces on both sides,” the UK Defense Secretary said on Twitter on Tuesday.
Sergei Shoigu, Russia’s defense minister, said taking control of Bakhmut would allow his forces to “continue to push” into Ukraine’s defenses, according to Interfax. He estimated that Ukrainian casualties rose by 40 percent in February to 11,000.
Ukraine’s general staff on Tuesday said 1,060 Russian soldiers had been killed on all front lines since February 24. These claims cannot be independently verified.
Kyiv claims it has identified one of the soldiers from a video circulating on social media on Monday showing Russian soldiers executing him as a prisoner of war. The footage shows the soldier, unarmed and smoking a cigarette, shot after chanting: “Glory to Ukraine.”
An army spokesman told the Financial Times that the relative had confirmed his identity but that an autopsy could not be carried out at this time because the body was still in Russian-held territory.
The general staff in a statement on Tuesday identified him as Tymofiy Shadura of the 30th mechanized brigade. In a separate statement, the brigade said Shadura went missing last month near Bakhmut.
“The shooting of unarmed prisoners is a cynical and callous disregard for the norms of international humanitarian law and the customs of war,” the general staff added.
Capturing Bakhmut, one of the few major cities in Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region not occupied by Russia, would give Putin his first major military victory since his forces captured the nearby sister cities of Severodonetsk and Lysychansk early last summer.
Ukraine launched a second offensive last fall to retake territory in the northeast as well as the city of Kherson in the south. But Russian forces still occupy the eastern and southern regions, only less than 20 percent of the territory.
Austin’s comments about the Ukrainian withdrawal echoed suggestions from some western officials and experts that Kyiv should be pulled out to keep its forces in place ahead of a planned counterattack. The push is expected after the arrival this spring of fresh western weapons, including modern tanks from NATO countries.
But Ukrainian officials and experts say the persistent defense of Bakhmut is undermining Russia’s firepower. He said Russia’s losses in the war had already exceeded Ukraine’s. National security chief Zelenskyy Oleksiy Danilov on Friday said the victims were “one to seven for us”.
“We destroy the occupiers everywhere – wherever we produce results for Ukraine,” Zelenskyy said in a video address. “Bakhmut has produced and produced one of the best results of this war.”