It will be an “open road” for Russian troops to capture cities in Ukraine should they seize control of Bakhmut, Volodymyr Zelenskiy has warned in an interview with CNN. “This is tactical for us, we understand that after Bakhmut they could go further,” said Ukraine’s president. Ukrainian deputy prime minister Iryna Vereshchuk told regional media on Tuesday that fewer than 4,000 civilians, including 38 children, remained in Bakhmut. The city, the focus of fierce fighting in the Donbas region, had an estimated prewar population of about 70,000.
The press service of Yevgeny Prigozhin, founder of the Wagner mercenary group which has been leading the Russian assault on Bakhmut, has said that Russian forces now fully control the east of the city. The claims have not been independently verified.
Russia has sustained “20,000 to 30,000 casualties’’ – killed and wounded – in trying to capture the city, western officials estimated at a briefing on Tuesday. While no firm figure was offered for Ukrainian losses, the official said it was “significantly less”. Ukraine’s defence of Bakhmut is forcing Russia 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.
The Nato secretary general Jens Stoltenberg said it may fall into Russian hands in the coming days. “What we see is that Russia is throwing more troops, more forces and what Russia lacks in quality they try to make up in quantity. They have suffered big losses, but at the same time, we cannot rule out that Bakhmut may eventually fall in the coming days”. The head of the western military alliance insisted “it is also important to highlight that this does not necessarily reflect any turning point of the war.”
Russia is unlikely to capture significantly more territory this year, according to the US director of national intelligence, Avril Haines. She told a Senate hearing that the military will probably be unable to carry on its current level of fighting, even with the possible capture of Bakhmut. After major setbacks and large battlefield losses, “We do not foresee the Russian military recovering enough this year to make major territorial gains,” she told a Senate hearing. Nevertheless, Russian president, Vladimir Putin, “most likely calculates that time works in his favour,” Haines said, according to Agence France Presse. Putin likely believes that prolonging the war, with intermittent pauses in fighting, “may be his best remaining pathway to eventually securing Russian strategic interests in Ukraine, even if it takes years,” she said.
Ukraine’s governor of Donetsk, Pavlo Kyrylenko, has said that for the first time since 24 February there were no dead or wounded civilians reported in the region.
The UN general secretary, António Guterres, and the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, have met in Kyiv. They have jointly called for an extension of the deal with Moscow that has allowed Kyiv to export grain via the Black Sea during Russia’s invasion, without any threat being posed to the ships. Guterres said it was “critical” for the deal to be continued. The 120-day deal, initially brokered by the UN and Turkey in July and extended in November, will be renewed on 18 March if no party objects. Russia has signalled that obstacles to its own agricultural exports needed to be removed before it would let the deal continue.
EU defence ministers on Wednesday discussed plans to rush €1bn worth of ammunition to Ukraine and place joint orders for more to ensure supplies keep flowing. Ministers meeting with their Ukrainian counterpart, Oleksiy Reznikov, in Stockholm were debating a push to meet Kyiv’s immediate needs and bolster Europe’s defence industry for the longer term. “Our priority number one is air defence systems, and also ammunition, ammunition and again ammunition,” Reznikov said as he arrived for the meeting
Intelligence reviewed by US officials suggested a pro-Ukrainian group carried out the attack on the Nord Stream pipelines in 2022, the New York Times has reported. There was no evidence Zelenskiy or his top lieutenants were involved, or that the perpetrators were acting at the direction of any Ukrainian government officials, said the report, citing US officials.
Russia said media reports about Nord Stream underscored the need to answer Moscow’s questions about what happened. Foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said those responsible for leaks to the media wanted to divert the public’s attention and avoid a proper investigation.
Officials in Germany who are investigating the Nord Stream gas pipeline explosions have searched a ship that they believe may have transported explosives used in the incident, according to prosecutors.
Andriy Yermak, head of the Office of the Ukrainian Presidency, said 130 prisoners of war had been returned home in an exchange. Russia’s ministry of defence said 90 prisoners of war had been returned by Ukraine.
The United Nations has said it believes that a viral video showing the apparent execution of a captured Ukrainian soldier by Russian troops may be authentic.
Ukraine has named the unarmed prisoner of war who appeared to have been shot dead by Russian soldiers, as 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 with automatic weapons.
Ukraine’s first lady Olena Zelenska visited the United Arab Emirates on Wednesday to mark International Women’s Day.
An EU court has struck down the sanctions against Violetta Prigozhina, the mother of the Russian mercenary leader Prigozhin, arguing the family connection was not enough to target her.
South Korea’s government approved export licenses for Poland last year to provide Ukraine with Krab howitzers, which are built with South Korean components, a defence acquisition official in Seoul told Reuters on Wednesday.
