Kyiv has sent reinforcements to forces defending Bakhmut in the west of Donbass, retired Lieutenant Colonel of the pro-Russian militia in Luhansk, Andrei Marochko, told the Russian news agency RIA Novosti, citing its own sources.

“Northwest and southwest of Artyomovsk,” a veteran from Lugansk said on Friday, using the Russian name Bakhmut, “there is an increase in the concentration of the enemy.”

According to him, based on the size, the amount of weapons and equipment, the Ukrainian army can be prepared both for defense and for counteroffensive.

Earlier this week, the founder of the Russian mercenary company Wagner, Yevgeny Prigozhin, said that the entire part of Bakhmut, which lies east of the river that runs through the city, is under Russian control.

As Sergei Rakhmanin, a member of the National Security, Defense and Intelligence Committee of the Ukrainian Parliament, noted, the situation in Bakhmut is critical. At the same time, on Monday, Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Valery Zaluzny spoke in favor of continuing the defensive operation in the city.

For the Russians, the conquest of Bakhmut is necessary to give the impression that the Ukrainian counterattack has been halted, forcing Russian and pro-Russian forces to consistently retreat over the past six months in Ukraine.

On the other hand, any fall of Bakhmut will mean for the Ukrainians that the defense of the remaining free cities of the Donetsk region, such as Slovyansk, will become much more difficult.

Source: RIA Novosti