Bakhmut – Central News Hub

Wagner claims Bakhmut, Kyiv says situation critical

Ukrainian military spokesperson Serhiy Cherevatyi told the news agency: “Our units are fighting in Bakhmut.”…reports Asian Lite News

The head of the Russian private army Wagner has said his fighters have completed the capture of Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine, but Kyiv immediately rejected the claim and said fighting was still going on.

Yevgeny Prigozhin made the claim in a video on Saturday in which he appeared in combat fatigues in front of a line of fighters holding Russian flags and Wagner banners.

“Today, at 12 noon, Bakhmut was completely taken,” Prigozhin said. “We completely took the whole city, from house to house.

“The operation to capture Bakhmut – the Bakhmut meat grinder – lasted 224 days,” he said.

But Ukraine said it retained some ground control in the eastern city of Bakhmut, with fighting continuing and the situation “critical”.

“Heavy fighting in Bakhmut. The situation is critical,” Deputy Defence Minister Ganna Malyar posted on Telegram. She said Ukrainian troops were “holding the defence” in the city’s “Airplane area”.

“As of now, our defenders control certain industrial and infrastructure facilities in the area.”

Ukrainian military spokesperson Serhiy Cherevatyi told news agency: “Our units are fighting in Bakhmut.”

“Earlier he repeatedly reported about the capture of Bakhmut but every time it turned out to be wrong. The Russian authorities have not commented on his statements,” she said.

“Earlier the Russian defence ministry official representative said that they… continue operations to liberate the western part of this city.

“A big question now – who’s going to hold the city if the Ukrainian forces are not withdrawing and according to Prigozhin, the city will be handed over the Ministry of Defence?”

Bakhmut has been the focus of the longest and bloodiest battle of Russia’s war in Ukraine, which is nearly at the end of its 15th month.

The battle has flattened the salt-mining centre that once had a population of approximately 70,000 people. Distant explosions could be heard in the background as Prigozhin spoke during the video, in which he said his forces would withdraw from Bakhmut from May 25 for rest and retraining, handing over control to the regular Russian army.

Prigozhin taunted Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and US President Joe Biden, who were taking part in a G7 summit in Japan on Saturday where the Ukraine war was front of mind for world leaders.

Addressing Zelenskyy, Prigozhin said, “Today, when you see Biden, kiss him on the top of his head, say hi to him from me.”

“Let’s not forget that Russia used to be part of the G7 – then the G8 – before it was kicked out in 2014 after illegally annexing Crimea,” Butler said.

“Here, Moscow is looking at these images of Zelenskyy talking to the world’s wealthiest nations, this elite club it was once part of … but also talking over the past few days and on the sidelines of this G7, with some of Russia’s allies.

“Zelenskyy had meetings with the crown prince of Saudi Arabia, but also with Narendra Modi of India, so no doubt, all of those optics are infuriating for Moscow.”

In his video message, Prigozhin also repeated complaints he has frequently made in the past that his forces suffered far heavier losses than necessary because of inadequate support and ammunition supplies from Russia’s regular army.

Earlier this month he had threatened to pull his forces out after publishing a furious tirade against Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu while standing in a field of bloodied corpses.

Because of Russian bureaucracy and the “whims” of Shoigu and Chief of Staff Valery Gerasimov, “five times more guys died than they should have”, he said in Saturday’s video.

“One day in history, they will pay for their actions,” Prigozhin said.

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Russia pummels forces in battle for Bakhmut

Ukrainian military intelligence chief Kyrylo Budanov told USA Today that Russia’s losses rendered it unable to mount a major offensive after this spring…reports Asian Lite News

Ukrainian troops slowly eased out of their most precarious defences in Bakhmut during the last week of February and the first of March but they did not give up the eastern city to Russian forces.

Ukraine’s tactic was likely to limit its losses while continuing to suck in Russian forces into what now ranks as the war’s longest and most hard-fought battle.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has set the conquest of the eastern provinces of Luhansk and Donetsk, known collectively as the Donbas region, as one of his goals – and Bakhmut in Donetsk is key to that.

“We understand that after Bakhmut, they could go farther,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told CNN. “They could go to Kramatorsk. They could go to Sloviansk. It would be open road for the Russians after Bakhmut to other towns in Ukraine in the Donetsk direction.”

Ukraine made a strategic decision to hold onto Bakhmut for as long as possible, reinforcing it with elite units on Sunday as Russian forces from the Wagner mercenary group entered its northern suburbs.

Zelenskyy said his top commanders were in favour of “continuing the defence operation and further strengthening our positions in Bakhmut”, a city with a pre-war population of about 70,000 people.

He did not elaborate on the reasons but the Institute for the Study of War suggested that Bakhmut has been a meat grinder for Russian forces, diverting them from other parts of the 800km-long (497 miles) front.

“The Ukrainian defense of Bakhmut remains strategically sound as it continues to consume Russian manpower and equipment as long as Ukrainian forces do not suffer excessive casualties,” the United States-based think tank said in a war assessment.

“Russian forces are unlikely to quickly secure significant territorial gains when conducting urban warfare, which usually favours the defender and can allow Ukrainian forces to inflict high casualties on advancing Russian units – even as Ukrainian forces are actively withdrawing,” it said.

Oleksiy Danilov, the secretary of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council, has put a figure on that logic, saying Ukrainian forces have lost one soldier for every seven Russians in Bakhmut.

White House officials reported on February 17 that the Wagner Group alone, which has predominantly fought in the Bakhmut area, has suffered 30,000 casualties, including about 9,000 fatalities, in one year of war.

Russia committed an estimated 190,000 soldiers to the invasion it launched on February 24, 2022, and has since added another 316,000. Ukraine has estimated more than 150,000 Russian soldiers have been killed.

Ukrainian military intelligence chief Kyrylo Budanov told USA Today that Russia’s losses rendered it unable to mount a major offensive after this spring.

“Russia has wasted huge amounts of human resources, armaments and materials,” he told the newspaper. “Its economy and production are not able to cover these losses. … If Russia’s military fails in its aims this spring, it will be out of military tools.”

Ukraine began to show signs of easing out of Bakhmut on February 28 when presidential adviser Alexander Rodnyansky said a tactical withdrawal from parts of the city was not out of the question.

“So far, [our troops have] held the city but if need be, they will strategically pull back because we’re not going to sacrifice all of our people just for nothing,” Rodnyansky said.

“I believe that sooner or later, we will probably have to leave Bakhmut,” Ukrainian parliamentarian Serhiy Rakhmanin said on Ukrainian NV radio the following day. “There is no sense in holding it at any cost.”

“But for the moment, Bakhmut will be defended with several aims: Firstly, to inflict as many Russian losses as possible and make Russia use its ammunition and resources,” he said.

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