Ukraine said on Friday that Russia had focused its efforts on capturing the eastern city of Bakhmut, where it called the situation “difficult” but said it was holding out despite Russia’s numerical superiority.
Serhii Cherevaty, a spokesman for Ukraine’s Eastern Military Command, told Reuters that Ukraine is in control of the situation in Bakhmut, understands Russia’s intentions and that Moscow has made tactical gains in some places, but is paying a high price.
“The situation is difficult, the enemy is concentrating maximum efforts to capture Bakhmut. However, they suffer serious losses and do not achieve strategic success,” Cherevaty said.
“All decisions are made with the aim of preventing the enemy from breaking through our defenses, inflicting maximum damage on him and preserving personnel,” he said.
Russia’s attack on Bakhmut, a small town in Donetsk Oblast, was the focus of the biggest battle in Moscow’s full-scale February 2022 invasion.
“Having tactical success in some places, the enemy pays an exorbitant price for it and loses combat potential every day,” Cherevaty said.
A key supply route is at risk
Russian forces have likely captured the center of Bakhmut and are threatening a key supply route for Ukrainian forces to the west, British military intelligence said in an assessment on Friday morning.
If confirmed, British intelligence suggests Ukrainian forces are under intense pressure two days after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi said they would retreat if they risked being encircled.
Wagner’s head, Yevgeny Prigozhin, recently said that Ukrainian troops had not left the city, but even if they had, they would need additional support from the regular Russian army before attempting to advance.
Donetsk is one of four Ukrainian regions that Russia is trying to fully occupy, and which it said it had annexed last year.
Heavy fighting is also taking place further south around Avdiyivka, a town near Donetsk, the Russian-controlled regional center.
The authorities of the Russian-controlled territories in eastern Ukraine said that seven civilians were killed as a result of two separate strikes by Ukrainian artillery, Russian news agencies reported.
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Source: Hot News
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