Russia captures Bakhmut despite military assistance of whole world to Ukraine
2023.03.08 12:40
Russia captures Bakhmut despite military assistance of whole world to Ukraine
By Kristina Sobol
Budrigannews.com – The head of Russia’s Wagner mercenary group said on Wednesday that his troops had taken over the entire eastern part of Bakhmut. The secretary general of NATO said that the invading army might take over the rest of the Ukrainian city in the next few days.
However, despite the fact that Ukrainian defenders appeared to be preparing for a tactical retreat from Bakhmut last week, they remained defiant as one of the bloodiest battles of the year-long conflict continued among the wreckage.
Now, political and military leaders in Ukraine talk about holding positions and killing as many Russians as possible to reduce their fighting power.
The General Staff of Ukraine’s military said in its Wednesday morning report: ” Despite significant losses, the enemy continues to storm the Bakhmut town.”
Yevgeny Prigozhin, the boss of Wagner, said that his troops, who had been leading the Russian assault on Bakhmut, had now taken the east of the city. That would indicate, if it is true, that Russian forces now control nearly half of the city as a result of their costly push for their first significant victory in several months.
Prigozhin stated on Telegram, “Wagner has complete control over everything east of the Bakhmutka River.”
Bakhmut is located on the edge of a portion of Ukraine’s Donetsk province that is already largely under Russian occupation and is divided by the river. On the west side of the river is the city center.
Reuters was unable to verify the situation on the ground because Prigozhin has previously made claims of premature success.
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg stated that Russia was adding more troops to the conflict in a speech delivered in Stockholm in advance of a meeting of defense ministers from the European Union.
Stoltenberg stated, “They have suffered significant losses, but at the same time we cannot rule out that Bakhmut may ultimately fall in the coming days.”
“We should not underestimate Russia, we must continue to provide support to Ukraine,” he said, adding that this would not necessarily be a turning point in the war.
Artem, a chief medic for the Ukrainian National Guard, told Reuters on Tuesday that all of the city’s exit roads were constantly being shelled.
“It is very hard to evacuate people because ambulances and other vehicles are hit by shelling. “Medics in particular suffer a lot of losses,” he said.
According to Russia, which asserts that it has annexed nearly 20 percent of Ukraine’s territory, taking Bakhmut would be a first step toward seizing the entire eastern industrial Donbas region, which includes the provinces of Donetsk and Luhansk.
Although its capture would be a boost to Russian President Vladimir Putin and his military after a series of setbacks in what they call their “special military operation” in Ukraine, Western analysts claim that Bakhmut has little strategic value.
Ukraine is expected to launch a counteroffensive when the weather improves and it receives more Western military aid, including heavy battle tanks, according to Kyiv. Russia’s losses there could determine the course of the war.
Since Russia invaded in February 2022, the conflict in the east has been among the deadliest and most destructive to date. Bakhmut’s name has been added to the list of cities that have been destroyed, including Mariupol, Sievierodonetsk, and Lysychansk.
Bakhmut’s devastation was captured on film by a Ukrainian military drone, which captured apartment buildings on fire and residential areas covered in smoke.
The principal intelligence advisor to President Joe Biden, U.S. Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines, referred to the conflict in Ukraine as “a grinding, attritional war.”
Haines stated that U.S. intelligence does not anticipate the Russian military recovering sufficiently this year to make significant territorial gains, speaking as the annual hearing on threats to U.S. security began in the Senate Intelligence Committee.
Russia portrays its invasion of Ukraine as a response to security concerns raised by the West’s ties to its neighbor.
According to deputy Ukrainian premier Iryna Vereshchuk, of the approximately 70,000 people who lived there before the war, fewer than 4,000 civilians, including 38 children, remain in Bakhmut, which is now largely demolished due to months of bombardment.
The city’s situation is difficult. Our positions are actively attacked by the enemy. However, they don’t succeed and lose a lot of money,” a Ukrainian border guard said in a State Border Service video.
“Bakhmut was, is, and will always be Ukraine,” says the city.
Serhiy Haidai, the governor of Luhansk, stated that Russia’s strategy in eastern Ukraine was to seize the remaining parts of Luhansk and Donetsk that it does not control.
“In terms of tactics, they know that they cannot advance rapidly, so they use one strategy: they advance wherever they can. According to what he told Ukrainian television, “they throw all the reserves into it if they see that there is any success somewhere.”
At the Stockholm meeting of EU defense ministers, additional arms supplies for Kiev were discussed.
Oleksii Reznikov, the Ukrainian defense minister who was at the Stockholm talks, said that Kyiv needed a lot of artillery shells right away. Reznikov stated that Kyiv required between 90,000 and 100,000 artillery rounds per month because Ukraine’s military is burning through shells faster than its allies can make them.
He stated that he was in favor of Estonia’s proposal that EU nations band together to purchase one million 155-millimeter shells for Ukraine this year at a cost of $4.22 billion.
