(Kyiv) The Russians say they are near the center of Bakhmout, a city in eastern Ukraine they have been trying to take since the summer at the cost of heavy losses and where the Ukrainians are trying to “buy time” to prepare for a counter-offensive which, according to them, should not be long in coming.
Moscow’s forces are continuing their attacks in other regions at the same time: the authorities announced that a strike in the morning left at least three people dead and two injured in Kherson, a southern city liberated by the Kyiv army in November after several months of occupation.
In Bakhmout, the current epicenter of the conflict, Evguéni Prigojine, the boss of the paramilitary group Wagner, claimed a new progression of his men who are fighting there on the front line.
PHOTO ARCHIVE REUTERS
Yevgeny Prigojine, the boss of the paramilitary group Wagner
“It’s the municipal administration building, the administrative center of the city,” he said on Saturday, pointing from the roof of a building to another building, as an illustration of this advanced.
“It’s a kilometer two hundred”, “It’s the area, there are fights going on”, he added in a video broadcast by the press service of his company Concord, unverifiable remarks from an independent source immediately.
A counter-offensive “is not far away”
On the same day, the British Ministry of Defense announced that “in the last four days” the Wagner Group had “taken control of most of the east” of Bakhmout.
“Ukrainian forces control the west of the city and have demolished key bridges over the river” which crosses it, the ministry said.
PHOTO ARIS MESSINIS, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
Ukrainian soldiers prepare to go to the front line in Bakhmout.
“The real heroes are the defenders who hold the eastern front on their shoulders,” for his part hailed the commander of the Ukrainian land forces Oleksandre Syrsky.
“We must gain time to accumulate reserves and launch a counter-offensive, which is not far away,” he said, quoted by the army press service.
“At the start of the war, we didn’t have drones. Missions were more complicated and less effective. But in the summer we started to receive drones and other equipment. Today, we are more efficient,” Petro, the pilot of one of three MI-8 attack helicopters which had just carried out a raid against a target near Bakhmout, told AFP.
Prigozhin’s mockery
The Russians have been trying for several weeks to encircle this city of some 70,000 inhabitants before the conflict and have succeeded in cutting off several important routes for the supply of Ukrainian soldiers.
While observers doubt the strategic importance of Bakhmout itself, this battle-the longest since the start of the Russian offensive more than a year ago-has acquired symbolic value, both for Kyiv and for Moscow, which would like to obtain a victory there after several humiliating setbacks.
“The most important thing is to get the right amount of ammunition and to move forward,” Evgeny Prigojine hammered in his video, while he is in open conflict with the Russian military hierarchy, in particular to obtain more ammunition.
He once again publicly attacked Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and Chief of Staff Valery Gerasimov, ironically calling them “exceptional military leaders”.
“I absolutely, totally support all their efforts”, still mocked the one who continues to criticize the strategy of the hierarchy on the ground.