Ukrainian troops announced this Wednesday that they had prevented an airstrike on Bakhmut, in the Donetsk region, as an adviser to the Russian-speaking separatist leader of the self-proclaimed republic referred to the intensification of attacks for control of that strategic city.
The Ukrainian Interior Ministry assured that the Ukrainian border troops managed to neutralize an offensive by the attackers who planned to encircle and capture their position, according to a statement released on the Telegram platform.
Ukrainian authorities also claimed the deaths of eight soldiers and the destruction of “drones” (unmanned aerial vehicles) used in the operation.
In turn, an adviser to Denis Pushilin, the leader of the Russian separatists in the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic, in eastern Ukraine, assured that Russian troops are completing the siege around the city of Bakhmut, after intensifying pressure over the past few years. weeks on Ukrainian troops.
Yan Gagin, Pushilin’s adviser and “military-political” expert, pointed out on Rossiya-24 public television that “Artemovsk [Bakhmut em ucraniano] is in an operational siege”.
“Our troops are closing the circle,” he said.
He also indicated that “the fighting now continues for control of the road between Chasiv Yar and Artemovsk, as it is the only arterial road through which Ukrainian troops can supply their units”.
Chasiv Yar is located west of Bakhmut.
The adviser said the road is under fire from separatist forces and the Russian army, and Ukrainian supply columns running along it have been attacked.
Colonel Vitaly Kiselyov, another military official in the neighboring Lugansk region, also in Donetsk province formally annexed by Russia, said in statements to a Russian television program that Russian troops “almost” surrounded Bakhmut in three positions.
The battle for Bakhmut, a pre-war city of 70,000, was one of the bloodiest in Russia’s 11-month campaign in Ukraine.
According to Pushilin, control of this city will clear the way for the Russian army to advance towards Kramatorsk and Sloviansk, the main Ukrainian strongholds in the east of the country.
At the same time, the head of the Russian mercenary group Wagner, Yevgueni Prigozhin, denied that Russian forces had set up an operative siege around Bakhmut, contrary to the claims of the Russian-speaking separatist forces.
“The operational siege is when all roads and supply routes, evacuation and any transit are controlled by enemy fire. Today we have no operational siege of Bakhmut,” he said.
The military offensive launched by Russia in Ukraine on February 24, 2022 has so far led to the flight of more than 14 million people – 6.5 million internally displaced people and nearly 8 million to European countries – the latest report shows. data from the UN, which classifies this refugee crisis as the worst in Europe since World War II (1939-1945).
Currently, 17.7 million Ukrainians need humanitarian aid and 9.3 million need food aid and shelter.
The Russian invasion – justified by the Russian President, Vladimir Putin, with the need to “denazify” and demilitarize Ukraine for Russian security – was condemned by the international community at large, which responded by sending arms to Ukraine and impose political and economic sanctions on Russia.
The UN presented 7,110 civilian deaths and 11,547 wounded as confirmed since the start of the war, underlining that these numbers are well below the real ones.
Source: DN
