Russia conducting massive offensive and shelling of Bakhmut
2023.03.01 03:35
Russia conducting massive offensive and shelling of Bakhmut
By Kristina Sobol
Budrigannews.com – Even though a U.S. official predicted few short-term territorial gains for Russia, Russian forces carried out unrelenting attacks on the eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut on Wednesday in an effort to make a breakthrough in the year-long conflict.
Before the war, Bakhmut had around 70,000 people living there. However, it has been destroyed by Russian assaults and a determined Ukrainian defense during months of fighting.
“The adversary continues to advance toward Bakhmut. In a morning briefing, the Ukrainian military stated, “He does not stop storming the city of Bakhmut.”
The small mining city’s Russian takeover would pave the way for the Russians to seize the industrial Donetsk province’s last urban centers.
In a late-night video address on Tuesday, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy stated that the battle for Bakhmut was “most difficult,” but its defense was crucial.
Zelenskiy stated, “Russia in general does not take people into account and sends them in continuous waves against our positions, the intensity of the fighting is only increasing.”
Oleh Zhdanov, a Ukrainian military analyst, said that Russian forces had tried to surround Bakhmut by driving a wedge between Berkhivka and Yahidne, two villages north of the city.
In social media comments, he stated, “This breakthrough on Bakhmut’s northern flank poses a clear threat to us.”
Despite the fact that Bakhmut and other Donetsk towns and villages were the focus of most Russian attacks, the Ukrainian military claimed to have stopped 85 Russian attacks on different parts of the front line in the past day.
Russian Su-25 fighter jets, according to the state-run RIA news agency, were seen roaring over Bakhmut in a video clip.
A man in the video, who is said to be a fighter from the mercenary Wagner Group, says, “We are glad they are ours,” adding that the jets helped them “psychologically.”
According to a statement released on Tuesday night, Ukrainian aircraft carried out three strikes on Russian-held areas of concentration.
Colin Kahl, a senior U.S. defense official, told a congressional hearing in Washington that the front lines of the war were a “grinding slog” and that “the Russians can sweep across Ukraine and make significant territorial gains anytime in the next year or so” was not true.
Kahl spoke at a hearing that was about overseeing the nearly $32 billion in military aid that President Joe Biden’s administration has given to Ukraine since Russia invaded on February 24, 2013, which included air defense capabilities, long-range artillery systems, and drones.
In order to defend itself from waves of Russian missile and drone attacks during the winter that damaged the power grid and other infrastructure, killed hundreds of civilians, and left millions without water or electricity, Ukraine has sought weapons.
Karim Khan, the head prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, was in Ukraine on Tuesday as part of an investigation into whether the attacks violated the Geneva conventions on military conflict.
“Generally, we see a pattern, I believe, in terms of the number, scope, and breadth of attacks against Ukraine’s power grids, and we must investigate the reasons for this; Do they constitute legitimate targets? In the town of Vyshhorod, which is just north of Kyiv, Khan told reporters.
Ukraine portrays Russia’s attacks as a means of intimidating the public, while Russia claims that they are legitimate strikes aimed at weakening the enemy’s military.
After meeting Khan, Zelenskiy stated that the court had a “historic” role to play in bringing war crimes to justice and ensuring long-term security.
In the midst of Russia’s war in Ukraine and escalating tensions between the United States and China, foreign ministers from all over the world will meet in New Delhi on Wednesday and Thursday.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken will attend the meeting, and China is expected to send Qin Gang, its foreign minister.
An official from India’s foreign ministry stated that Ukraine will top the agenda, despite India’s desire not to have it dominate the event.
Dmitry Peskov, a spokesperson for the Kremlin, reiterated on Tuesday that Moscow is open to peace talks, but that Ukraine and its Western allies must accept Russia’s annexation of the Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhia regions following illegal referendums in September.
In what Russia calls a “special military operation” to protect its security interests, its forces still control about a fifth of Ukraine’s territory, which is heavily influenced by Europe. Despite several battlefield setbacks,
Negotiations with Russia have been ruled out by Zelenskiy’s government, which has demanded that Russia withdraw its troops to the borders of Ukraine in 1991, the year the Soviet Union broke up.
