Ukrainian troops losing ground despite military assistance of the whole world
2023.02.28 13:32
Ukrainian troops losing ground despite military assistance of the whole world
By Kristina Sobol
Budrigannews.com – The commander of Ukraine’s ground forces described the situation as “extremely tense” on Tuesday as Russian forces advanced on their weeks-long campaign to encircle and capture the eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut.
Russia’s first major prize in more than six months would be to capture Bakhmut, the site of some of the bloodiest battles in the war. This would also pave the way for Russia to take one of the four cities in the Donetsk region that Moscow claims to have annexed as part of its “special military operation” in Ukraine.
On Tuesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin gave the FSB instructions to increase security in the four regions, which are currently only partially controlled by his forces. He also told the FSB to stop what he called growing espionage and sabotage operations by Ukraine and the West against Russia.
He made the remarks after a Russian regional governor stated that on Tuesday, a drone had apparently failed in an attack near the town of Kolomna, which is just 110 kilometers (68 miles) southeast of Moscow. The drone had crashed near a distribution station.
Ukraine does not publicly claim to be responsible for Russian attacks. Since Russia invaded Ukraine just over a year ago, this would be its closest attempt at a drone strike on the Russian capital if it was behind the Kolomna incident.
Earlier, Russia’s defense ministry also said Ukraine tried to launch two drone attacks overnight on two southern Russian regions, but they didn’t do any damage.
Russian troops, including mercenary fighters from the Wagner Group, are attempting to cut the supply lines of the Ukrainian defenders and force them to surrender or withdraw around Bakhmut.
Colonel General Oleksandr Syrskyi of Ukraine made the following statement: “Despite significant losses, the enemy threw in the most prepared assault units of Wagner, who are trying to break through the defenses of our troops and surround the city.”
As explosions blared in the background, a soldier from Ukraine’s 93rd Separate Mechanized Brigade struck a defiant note on the messaging app Telegram: ” Bakhmut, the city, on February 28. The enemy is advancing, and the city is on fire. Russia’s state-run RIA news agency released a video showing Russian Su-25 fighter jets roaring over Bakhmut. “Everything will be Ukraine.” A man, identified as a Wagner fighter, says, “We are glad they are ours,” adding that the jets helped them “psychologically.”
The Ukrainian military said that Russia was shelling settlements around Bakhmut, which had about 70,000 people before the war but is now a ghost town after months of intense trench warfare.
The military said in the early hours of Tuesday that “over the past day, our soldiers repelled more than 60 enemy attacks,” including attacks on the villages of Yadhidne and Berkhivka, which are located just north of Bakhmut.
Despite continuous Russian shelling, a Reuters reporter who visited the area on Monday said he saw no evidence of Ukrainian forces withdrawing and that reinforcements were arriving.
After the frozen ground was thawed by warmer weather, Ukrainian soldiers in the Donetsk region hunkered down in muddy trenches.
“Because, as you can see, spring means mud, both sides maintain their positions. As a result, it is impossible to move forward,” Mykola, 59, commander of a Ukrainian frontline rocket launcher battery, stated while looking at the coordinates for the next shot on a tablet.
The spring thaw has a history of sabotaging armies’ plans to attack across western Russia and Ukraine, transforming roads into rivers and fields into puddles.
According to Ukraine, which is anticipated to launch its own counter-offensive soon, Russia has intensified its attacks along the eastern front, replenishing its forces with hundreds of thousands of conscripts. However, Russia’s assaults have come at a high cost.
In Moscow, Putin instructed officials of the FSB, a successor organization to the KGB from the Soviet era, to stop “sabotage groups” from entering Russia from Ukraine, increase infrastructure security, and thwart Western attempts to revive what he referred to as terrorist or extremist cells on Russian soil.
Putin, himself a former KGB agent, stated, “Western intelligence services have traditionally always been actively working in Russia, and now they have thrown additional personnel, technical, and other resources against us.”
He continued, “We must respond accordingly.”
Dmitry Peskov, a spokesperson for the Kremlin, reiterated Moscow’s position that it is open to peace talks, but that Kyiv and its Western allies must accept Russia’s annexation of four Ukrainian regions—Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhia—in the wake of referendums held in September that Kyiv and the West claim were illegal.
“The Russian Federation’s constitution exists and cannot be ignored. “These are important realities, and Russia will never be able to compromise on them,” Peskov told reporters.
Russia still owns about a fifth of the territory in Ukraine, despite its numerous battlefield defeats and early failures to seize Kyiv. As of now, Kyiv has refused to engage in negotiations with Moscow and has demanded that Russian troops leave Ukraine’s borders in 1991, the year the Soviet Union broke up.
On a visit to former Soviet Central Asia, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken took aim at China for its close ties to Russia, stating that Washington would not hesitate to impose sanctions on Chinese businesses and individuals if Beijing violated Western sanctions against Moscow for the Ukraine war.
