The war of attrition being played out in the rubble of Bakhmut is reported to be reaching a climax as Russian mercenaries grip the ravaged city in a pincer movement.
At the same time, a coordinated push by Moscow’s paratroopers are pounding Ukrainian defenders on a third front.
Russia’s defence ministry said earlier on Saturday that fighters from the Wagner mercenary group had captured two more areas of Bakhmut, the main target of Moscow’s offensive in eastern Ukraine.
Ukraine officials acknowledge the fighting is reaching a new intensity but insist defenders continue to hold on and have no intention of retreating.
Wagner has spearheaded Russia’s attempt to take Bakhmut since last summer in what has been the longest and deadliest battle of the war for both sides.
“Bloody battles unprecedented in recent decades are taking place in the middle of the city’s urban area,” said Serhiy Cherevatyi, spokesperson for Ukraine’s eastern military command.
‘Bloody and fierce’
“Our soldiers are doing everything in bloody and fierce battles to grind down (the enemy’s) combat capability and break its morale. Every day, in every corner of this city, they are successfully doing so,” he told the 1+1 television channel.
The Russian defence ministry said Wagner units had taken two areas on the northern and southern outskirts of the city. Russian army paratroop units were supporting the claimed advance by holding back Ukrainian forces on the flanks, it added. Reuters could not independently confirm the report.
Putin’s meagre gains
Britain said in an intelligence update on Friday that Ukrainian troops had been forced to cede some territory in Bakhmut as Russia mounted a renewed assault, with intense artillery fire over the previous two days.
Bakhmut, which had a pre-war population of around 70,000 people, has been Russia’s main target in a winter offensive that has so far yielded scant gains despite infantry ground combat of an intensity unseen in Europe since World War Two.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy made no mention of Bakhmut in his daily video address on Saturday and reiterated Kyiv’s desire to join NATO as soon as possible. Ukraine would need effective security guarantees before that happened, he said, but gave no details.
Meanwhile, the death toll has risen to 11 after a Russian missile struck a residential area in the eastern Ukrainian city of Sloviansk.
Sloviansk Mayor Vadym Lyakh said that the body of a woman had been retrieved from a high-rise building that was seriously damaged in the attack.
Residents are still missing under the rubble. A two-year-old child is said to be among the fatalities.
At least 20 people have been injured from the Friday afternoon attack, the mayor said.
The spokesman for the Russian Defence Ministry, Igor Konashenkov, said the Sloviansk building hit was a fuel depot of the Ukrainian army.
Footage of the attack on Facebook shows a block of flats.
-with AAP
