Russian troops continue to try to surround the city of Bakhmut, the epicenter of the war in the east UkraineHowever, today they reported in the Ukrainian army, assuring that new attacks were repulsed.

In its daily briefing, the General Staff of the Ukrainian Army said that over the past day in many sectors of the front, mainly in the cities of Kupyansk, Liman, Bakhmut and Avdiivka, “at least 130 enemy attacks” were prevented.

Villages north and west of Bakhmut were shelled, Serhiy Tserevatiy, a spokesman for the eastern sector of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, told CNN on Saturday. He has previously said the situation in Bahamut is “difficult but under control.”

The battle for Bakhmut, a strategically important industrial city, has been at the center of fighting between Russians and Ukrainians for months, especially since the summer.

Wagner’s private mercenary army, which is on the front line in Bakhmut, said on Friday that it had “virtually surrounded” the city and called on President Volodymyr Zelensky to order his troops to retreat.

Yesterday, the American Institute for the Study of War (ISW) acknowledged that Russian troops had taken up positions in Bakhmut, which could allow them to bypass part of the Ukrainian defenses.

“The Russians may try to encircle the Ukrainian forces in Bakhmut, but the Ukrainian administration has made it clear that they would rather retreat than risk being surrounded,” the source calculated.

The Donetsk pro-Russian separatist army backing Russian forces has released a video of Wagner mercenaries in the northern suburbs of Bakhmut talking about capturing the small Stupki train station north of the city.

✅🇬🇺⚔️🇺🇦☠️ Report from the liberated area of ​​Bakhmut

The assault and cleaning of the Stupka station on the northern outskirts of Artemovsk (Bakhmut) has been completed and the city area has completely come under the control of Wagner PMC fighters pic.twitter.com/HPbC9bkbwh

— AZ 🛰🌏🌍🌎 (@AZgeopolitics) March 5, 2023

Shoigu visited headquarters in Donetsk

Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu yesterday inspected the forward “headquarters” in Ukraine, in the zone of southern Donetsk, without specifying either the exact location or the date of the visit. This war zone includes the sector of the city of Ukhledar, where the Russian army has been conducting offensive operations without much success in recent weeks.

According to the American think tank ISW, the visit was “apparently to assess the extent of losses in the Ukhledar area and the possibility of continuing the attack in this direction.”

According to images released yesterday by the Russian military, Sergei Shoigu was also present at a meeting with senior Russian military officials who led the attack on Ukraine, specifically Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov.

As a result of an attack on a residential building in Zaporozhye, 13 people were killed.

Deadly shootings have been reported in residential areas in the past 24 hours, killing five people on the Ukrainian side, according to Ukrainian authorities.

According to the latest report of the emergency services of Ukraine, as a result of a strike on a residential building in Zaporozhye on the night of Wednesday to Thursday, 13 people were killed, including a child.

Meeting with Zelensky – Metsola

On the diplomatic front, Volodymyr Zelenskyy yesterday received European Parliament President Roberta Metzola in Lviv, in western Ukraine. Both expressed hope for the start of negotiations on Ukraine’s accession to the European Union this year.

Zelensky also touched on the situation at the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine a year after it was seized by Russian troops.

The President of Ukraine condemned the “hostages” of the largest plant in Europe and called on the West to impose sanctions against the Russian nuclear industry.

In an interview with Agence France-Presse, the exiled mayor of the city of Energodar, where the station is located, said that the latter has ceased to function and has become a de facto “military base” for Russian forces.

Source: APE-MPE, AFP.