Russian forces claim they have almost completely surrounded the town of Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine as heavy fighting continues and escape routes are limited.
The UK Department of Defense says in its latest update that Kyiv is fortifying the area with elite forces and destroying key bridges, but Russian forces are moving forward.
“The Ukrainian defense of the city of Bakhmut in Donbas is under increasing pressure, fierce battles are being waged in and around the city,” the Defense Ministry said.
The Russian regular army and the Wagner Group troops continued their offensive on the northern outskirts of the city, which is now a Ukrainian-held salient, vulnerable to Russian attacks from three sides.
“Ukraine is fortifying the area with elite troops, and in the past 36 hours, two important bridges in Bakhmut have been destroyed, including a vital bridge connecting the city to the last main supply route from Bakhmut to the city of Khasiv Yar.
“Ukrainian supply routes outside the city are becoming increasingly limited.”
But the city’s deputy mayor, Aleksandr Marchenko, says Russia has yet to get the situation under control, despite continued shelling.
“They have no goal to save the city — their only goal is to kill people and genocide the Ukrainian people,” he told the newspaper. BBC Radio 4 today Program. “The tactics used by the Russians are scorched earth tactics.
“They want to destroy Bakhmut, they want to destroy the city – and I honestly don’t understand why they are doing this.”
He said there had been street fighting between Russian and Ukrainian forces and said that there were between 4,000 and 4,500 Ukrainian civilians in the city.
“There is fighting in the city, as well as street fighting, but thanks to the Ukrainian forces, they still do not control the city.”
He added that those who are in Bakhmut live in shelters and there is no water, no gas, no electricity, but they are provided with heating.
“The city is practically destroyed, and there is not a single building untouched by this war,” he said. “There are completely destroyed areas, buildings and apartment buildings.”
The head of the Russian private military group Wagner says that Bakhmut, reduced to rubble during the more than seven-month Russian offensive, is almost completely surrounded, with only one road open to Ukrainian forces.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has warned that the situation on the Eastern Front is becoming “increasingly difficult”.
The depletion of ammunition stocks is a major concern for Ukraine as the intense war with Russia shows no signs of abating.
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu on Saturday made a rare visit to Russian-held Ukrainian territory south of Donetsk.
Shoigu conducted a forward inspection in eastern Ukraine, the ministry said, and also “inspected a forward command post” in the southern part of the Donetsk region.
The ministry released a video showing Shoigu flying in a helicopter and then talking to a soldier in front of damaged buildings.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky met with U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland on Friday, and senior European officials called for an international prosecution of Russia for war crimes.
Source: I News
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