About this on March 10 in Telegram informed Deputy Minister of Defense of Ukraine Anna Malyar.
“To briefly sum up the published reports: the situation in Bakhmut is aggravated, the enemy continues the offensive and is trying to break through the defenses of our troops,” wrote Malyar.
According to her, the Armed Forces of Ukraine “are doing everything possible to prevent the enemy from realizing their plans.”
Over the past 24 hours, the invaders have lost 191 servicemen killed and 319 wounded in the Bakhmut direction, said Serhiy Cherevaty, spokesman for the eastern group of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. He noted that 57 clashes took place in the Bakhmut sector of the front during the day.
Intense fighting in the Bakhmut area began in July 2022 and has been going on for seven months, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine reported on February 23, 2023. They noted that the Russian Federation threw the most trained units of regular troops and Wagnerites to capture Bakhmut, most of the occupiers’ artillery is concentrated in this direction.
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky said that “no one will hand over Bakhmut”. He noted that if the Russians take Bakhmut, they will want to “go further.”
On March 5, the commander of the Ground Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Alexander Syrsky, after another trip to Bakhmut, said that the battles for the city had reached the maximum level of tension. On March 6, at a meeting of the headquarters of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Valery Zaluzhny and Syrsky spoke in favor of continuing the defensive operation in Bakhmut.
There is no talk of encircling the city, Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council Oleksiy Danilov noted on March 6.
Russia suffered between 20,000 and 30,000 dead and wounded in an attempt to capture Bakhmut, The Guardian wrote, citing Western officials. According to Danilov, the invaders lose seven times more soldiers near Bakhmut than Ukraine. According to the data cited by CNN, five times.
Bakhmut could fall “in the next few days,” NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg admitted on March 8. In response, Cherevaty suggested that the Alliance, making such statements, probably does not take into account that the Ukrainians have gained greater stability and power of tactical decisions during the year of a large-scale war.
