Russian forces in Bakhmut were pushed back in some areas up to two kilometers after the counteroffensive, according to the military commander of the Ground Forces of Ukraine Oleksandr Syrsky, quoted by The Guardian.

He reported this in Telegram.

• “On some areas of the front, the enemy could not withstand the onslaught of the Ukrainian defenders and retreated to a distance of up to two kilometers.
• It was the conduct of the defensive operation that exhausted the forces of “Wagner” and forced them to be replaced in certain areas by less prepared units of the Russian troops, which were defeated and disbanded,” says the Ukrainian official.

How Wagner and the Russian army contradict each other

Russia said on Wednesday that its forces repelled Ukrainian counterattacks from the flanks in Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine, after Yevgeny Prigozhin said a day earlier that a unit of the Russian armed forces had left their positions on Monday, EFE news agency reported.

“Units of the airborne troops are repelling the enemy’s actions on the flanks,” Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said in Moscow.

Konashenkov also reported that the assault troops, referring to the mercenaries of HVK “Wagner”, “continued offensive actions to seize areas on the northwestern and western outskirts of the city of Artemivsk” (Russian name Bakhmut).

Konashenkov’s comments came after the head of Wagner’s group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, accused the Defense Ministry of “doing everything possible to collapse the front”, saying a unit of the Russian regular army had “fled and left its positions” on one of the flanks.

The conquest of this flank cost the lives of 500 Wagner mercenaries and left an area almost two kilometers wide and 500 kilometers deep unprotected.

The 3rd Separate Airborne Assault Brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine confirmed on its Telegram account on Tuesday evening that one of the Russian brigades that was trying to take full control of the city of Bakhmut had abandoned its position, leaving behind “500 corpses”.

Russia began its offensive on Bakhmut in August 2022. Despite the fact that it controls most of the city – 95%, according to Prigozhin – Russian troops have not yet managed to completely expel the Ukrainians from this insignificant city, in the conquest of which they invested money. significant technical and human resources.

Ukraine also suffered heavy losses under Bakhmut. Kyiv justifies its persistence in defending its last positions in this city by exhausting Russian troops, preventing them from launching offensive actions in other areas of the front, such as Kramatorsk and Slavyansk.

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