Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu said on Tuesday that the seizure of Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine would allow Moscow’s forces to mount further offensive operations.
Russian forces carried out 50 airstrikes and five missile strikes overnight and Ukrainian forces repelled 37 attacks in the area around Bakhmut, according to the latest update by the General staff of the armed forces of Ukraine. Ukrainian forces claim to have carried out 15 airstrikes against Russian forces, including a strike on an anti-aircraft system. It also claimed to have shot down an SU-25 aircraft, nine Shaheed drones and eight other drones.
Jan Gagin, an adviser to the Russian-installed leaders in the occupied portion of Donetsk, has claimed that Russian forces control about half of Bakhmut and have control over all the asphalt roads in the area. None of the claims about the situation in Bakhmut have been independently verified.
Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said Ukraine is committed to defending the embattled city despite a partial encirclement. The Ukrainian president said he had held a meeting with senior generals and commanders in which it was resolved that there was “no part of Ukraine” that “can be abandoned”.
Both Kyiv and Moscow appear to be struggling with ammunition shortages and mounting casualties. Yevgeny Prigozhin, the founder of Russia’s Wagner mercenary force, which is leading the Russian offensive in Bakhmut, said that his representative had been denied access Monday to the headquarters of Russia’s “special military operation” in Ukraine after Prigozhin repeatedly complained about a lack of ammunition.
Ukraine’s ongoing defence of Bakhmut is forcing Russian to engage in a costly battle for a city that “isn’t intrinsically important operationally or strategically”, according to the US-based Institute for the Study of War (ISW).
The situation is “stable and controlled” in the Luhansk region the governor, Serhiy Haidai said. In a post on Telegram, Haidai said the number of attacks in the direction of Bilogorivka and Kreminnaya had increased. Tuesday, he said, the Russians have “pulled back to replenish their reserves”.
Ukraine has named the unarmed prisoner of war who appeared to have been shot dead by Russian soldiers, after the president delivered an overnight message resolving to “find the murderers”. In the graphic 12-second clip that first circulated on Telegram on Monday a detained combatant, named by the Ukrainian military as Tymofiy Mykolayovych Shadura, is seen standing in a shallow trench smoking a cigarette before apparently being shot at close range with automatic weapons.
Ukraine has started online talks with partners on extending the Black Sea grain initiative aimed at ensuring Kyiv can keep shipping grain to global markets, a senior Ukrainian government source has said on Tuesday. The source said Ukraine had not held discussions with Russia, which blockaded Ukrainian Black Sea ports after its invasion last year, but that it was Kyiv’s understanding that its partners were talking to Moscow.
The United Nations secretary-general, António Guterres, will meet Zelenskiy in Kyiv on Wednesday to discuss extending a deal with Moscow that allows the Black Sea export of Ukraine grains, according to Reuters.
Poland is to send more tanks to Ukraine this week, the country’s defence minister said. Poland had promised to send 14 Leopard 2 tanks in total.
A decision on a permanent deployment of a German brigade to Lithuania will be “up to Nato”, German defence minister Boris Pistorius said in response to calls by Vilnius for a larger Nato presence in the country.
A Moscow court has sentenced the student activist Dmitry Ivanov to eight and a half years in prison as the Kremin escalates its crackdown on anti-war dissent. Ivanov, 23, a pro-democracy activist and computer science student who runs the “Protest at MGU” [Moscow State University] Telegram channel, was tried on charges of spreading false information meant to discredit the Russian army. In a courtroom speech shortly before the sentencing was announced, Ivanov said “Peace to Ukraine, freedom to Russia! My example should not scare you. We have to do a lot to live in the country we deserve and to end this war.”
Belarus detained on Tuesday what it said was a Ukrainian “terrorist group” working with Kyiv’s intelligence services over attempted sabotage at a Belarusian airfield. Belarusian anti-government activists said last month they had blown up a sophisticated Russian military surveillance aircraft in a drone attack at an airfield near the Belarusian capital Minsk, a claim disputed by Moscow and Minsk.
The Russian-installed governor of Sevastopol in Crimea has denied reports that explosions have been heard near Belbek airbase. Mikhail Razvozhaev posted to Telegram to say “The public is again writing about some kind of explosion near the airfield. This is a lie. Ship crews are training in the outer road. Everything is calm in the city.”
Chinese foreign minister Qin Gang says China must strengthen its relationship with Russia in the face of continued hostility from the US. In a fiery press conference, his first appearance as foreign minister, Qin outlined China’s foreign policy agenda for the coming years, presenting its relationship with Russia as a beacon of strength and stability, and the US and its allies as a source of tension and conflict.
The exiled Belarusian opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya was handed a 15-year jail term Monday after being convicted in absentia for treason and “conspiracy to seize power”. She said the verdict was punishment for her efforts to promote democracy.
The European Union is reported to be edging closer to joint procurement of ammunition to help Ukraine and replenish members’ stockpiles. Major questions regarding funding and scale remain to be resolved in what would be a landmark move.
A British-led £520m international fund to provide fresh weapons for Ukraine and intended to be “low bureaucracy” has been plagued by delays, with only £200m allocated amid warnings that the rest of the funding will not provide arms at the front “until the summer”.
