Ukrainian forces still holding out in the eastern town of Bakhmut dug new trenches in an attempt to contain the Russians as the United States said new military aid to Ukraine would be discussed at a meeting with the German leader on Friday.

Russian forces attacked Bakhmut in the Donetsk region for several months, often in waves, and witnessed some of the bloodiest fighting of the war.

“Fighting in Bakhmut continues around the clock … The situation is critical,” Volodymyr Nazarenko, deputy commander of the National Guard of Ukraine, told Ukrainian radio NV.

“They don’t count their losses when they try to take the city. The task of our forces in Bahamut is to inflict as many casualties on the enemy as possible. Every meter of Ukrainian land costs the enemy hundreds of lives.”

Over the past 24 hours, Ukrainian forces have repulsed more than 170 shellings on five main sectors of the front, Ukrainian military commentator Oleg Zhdanov reported on YouTube on Thursday evening.

Zhdanov described Russian attempts to encircle Bakhmut from the north, east, and south, and said that the west “is probably the only part of Bakhmut where the initiative belongs to our forces and not to the Russian invaders.”

Russia, which lost territory in the second half of 2022, says taking Bakhmut would be a step towards taking over the rest of the industrial Donbas. Ukraine says the city is of limited strategic importance but wants to wear down Russian forces.

Ukrainian forces repulsed attacks in Bakhmut and two settlements in the west – Khromov and Ivanovsk, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine announced on Thursday evening.

The same statement said Russian shelling hit Bakhmut and several nearby towns, including Chasov Yar, the largest city in the west, and two towns south of Bakhmut.

In nearby towns and villages, new trenches were dug along the roadsides at a distance of 20-40 meters, which indicates the strengthening of defensive positions by Ukrainian troops.

“We need as much ammo as possible. There are many more Russians here, and there is not enough ammunition to destroy them,” Nazarenko said. “The number of enemy troops does not matter. Technology matters.”

In Zaporozhye in the center of the country and Kherson in the south, Russian troops shelled more than 40 towns and villages, the Ukrainian military said in a statement.

Concerns about China

Washington will announce a new $400 million military aid package for the Kiev government, and this is expected to be the main issue between US President Joe Biden and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz during their upcoming meeting at the White House, officials said.

The aid is expected to include mostly ammunition, two US officials and a source familiar with the new aid package said.

The United States has provided almost $32 billion worth of weapons to Ukraine to defend against Russia.

A senior administration official said Biden and Scholz could also allay fears that China might provide military assistance to Russia.

The Biden administration is urging close allies to the possibility of imposing new sanctions on China if Beijing provides military support to Russia, US officials and other sources said. China has denied the possibility of such assistance, and US officials have publicly provided no evidence of their claim.

Asked by reporters if potential sanctions against China would be a problem for Biden and Scholz, White House national security spokesman John Kirby said that “there could be a question of third-party support for Russia.”

Aura of the Cold War

The fighting in Ukraine has claimed thousands of lives, displaced millions, reduced cities to dust, rocked the global economy and created a Cold War aura in international relations.

Russia says the “special military operation” is aimed at degrading the Ukrainian military and eliminating what it calls a threat to its own security. Ukraine and its allies accuse Moscow of waging an unprovoked war to seize territory.

Shortly before the Russian invasion, Chinese leader Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin met to cement the “borderless” cooperation between their countries that alarmed the West.

At the G20 foreign ministers’ meeting, US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken told his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov to end the war and urged Moscow to lift the New START suspension, a senior US official said.

It was the first face-to-face meeting of senior diplomats since the invasion. The Russian Foreign Ministry said that Lavrov and Blinken spoke “standing” for less than 10 minutes.

Russia accused the West of blackmail and threats and said China supported its position as the meeting ended without a joint statement.

At the same time, Russia must not be allowed to wage war with impunity, US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken and his colleagues from India, Japan and Australia said today, Friday, after a meeting in New Delhi. The so-called Quad group also said that the use or threat of use of nuclear weapons in Ukraine is “unacceptable”.

“If we allow Russia to do what it is doing in Ukraine with impunity, that will be a signal to potential aggressors everywhere that they can get away with it,” Blinken said.

Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong said she discussed Russia’s invasion of Ukraine with Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gan on the sidelines of a meeting in New Delhi and then told reporters that all countries want China to “do the right thing” and not supplied weapons. in Russia.

At the G20, the US and its allies urged member states to continue to pressure Russia to end the conflict, but the G20 was unable to agree on a joint declaration of war due to opposition from Russia, which calls its actions a “special military operation” and China.

In their statement, the Quadra ministers also launched a veiled attack on China, denouncing actions that heighten tensions in the South China Sea and the “militarization” of disputed territories in the region.

China condemned the Quad as a Cold War construct and a cabal that “targets other countries”.

Source: Reuters.