More than 1,000 Russian servicemen have been killed and at least 1,500 seriously injured in last week’s fighting in the Ukrainian city of Bakhmut, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said today.
In his daily address to the country, Zelensky took stock of the fighting in Bakhmut, a city in eastern Ukraine, which has been fighting for months and has caused many casualties on both sides.
However, Zelensky stated that since March 6 in the Bakhmut zone alone, “more than 1100 enemy soldiers have been killed, which are irreversible losses for Russia”, and more than 1500 servicemen have been seriously injured.
Kiev’s forces destroyed more than ten Russian ammunition depots and dozens of military units, according to the Ukrainian president.
On Saturday, the reflection group (thinktank) Institute for the Study of War, in Washington, United States, revealed that Russian troops and mercenaries from the Wagner Group, linked to the Kremlin, continue to launch ground attacks, but with no signs of advancing on the ground in Bakhmut.
This information from the US organization came after official British defense sources said the Wagner Group operatives had already taken much of the eastern part of Bakhmut, with the Bakhmutka River now marking the front line of the fighting.
The six-month battle for the Ukrainian town of Bakhmut in the Donetsk region has been the longest and bloodiest battle in Russia’s war against Ukraine.
For the Kremlin, the capture of Bakhmut is essential to achieving its stated goal: full control of Donetsk, one of the four Ukrainian regions that Moscow illegally annexed in September.
The Russian military offensive on Ukrainian territory, launched on February 24, 2022, plunged Europe into what is considered the most serious security crisis since World War II (1939-1945).
Information about the war in Ukraine released by the two sides involved in the conflict cannot immediately be independently confirmed.
Source: DN
