(Kyiv) The Ukrainian army on Tuesday reported an “extremely tense” situation around Bakhmout, at the epicenter of fighting in eastern Ukraine, where Russian troops have been gaining ground in recent weeks and are now trying to encircle this city.
Despite a strategic importance disputed by experts, Bakhmout has become a symbol of the struggle for control of the industrial region of Donbass. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who went there in December, had sworn to defend this fortress city “as long as possible”.
“The situation around Bakhmout is extremely tense,” Ukrainian land forces commander Oleksandr Syrsky said on Tuesday, quoted by the army’s official press center.
According to him, the Russian paramilitary group Wagner, whose men are on the front line in this battle, “sent to the attack its best prepared units, which are trying to break through the defense of our troops and encircle the city”.
Wagner’s boss, Evguéni Prigojine, has in recent weeks claimed in turn the taking of localities around Bakmout, in particular to the north of it. Soledar fell in January, then Krasna Gora in February and, on Saturday, the village of Iaguidné, located at the very gates of the city.
As a result of this slow Russian push, three of the four routes allowing the Ukrainians to supply Bakhmout were cut off, leaving only, as an exit route, the one leading, further west, towards Chassiv Iar, to the south of which the Russians are also trying to progress.
Bakhmout, which had a population of 70,000 before the war, was largely destroyed by the fighting which caused heavy casualties on both sides.
Donetsk region governor Pavlo Kyrylenko revealed in mid-February that fewer than 5,000 civilians, including about 140 children, still remained in the city despite the danger.
” We are here ”
Mr. Zelensky acknowledged on Monday evening that the situation around Bakhmout was becoming “more and more complicated” for Ukrainian soldiers, who described scenes of destruction reminiscent of those of the First World War.
Ukrainian soldiers interviewed by AFP in Bakhmout on Monday said they were keeping their spirits up.
“We cannot know the whole operational situation, but we are here, we did not run away,” said a 44-year-old soldier whose nom de guerre is “Kaï”.
“Not just Bakhmut, but Crimea and everything else, we’re going to get it all back,” said 45-year-old “Ded,” drawing on a cigarette.
“Fox”, 40, is more realistic: “I understand which country we are fighting against […] They have smart people there, people who know how to fight. They think, they learn, the same way we do,” he notes.
According to the Institute for the Study of War think tank, Russia is “implementing new assault tactics” by forming smaller, more mobile groups.
The Ukrainian general staff on Tuesday reported fighting on other points of the front: in Kupiansk in the northeast, in Avdiivka near the separatist stronghold of Donetsk and in Lyman, an eastern city retaken from the Russians in September .
These clashes are taking place after the war in Ukraine entered its second year last week.
Russia was hit for its invasion by a shower of Western sanctions and the Ukrainians managed to inflict serious setbacks on the ground, boosted by arms deliveries and financial support from their American and European allies.
On the diplomatic front, China came out of its restraint by offering the Russians and the Ukrainians to start peace talks on the basis of a 12-point document in which it urges the two belligerents to dialogue, insists on respect of territorial integrity and opposes any use of nuclear weapons.
If Westerners generally welcomed this Chinese diplomatic intervention with skepticism, President Zelensky said he was ready to “work” with Beijing and announced his intention to meet his counterpart Xi Jinping.
The Kremlin meanwhile said it did not see “for now” the conditions met for a “peaceful” settlement.