Russia and Ukraine Continue Battle for Control of Bakhmut

Russia and Ukraine

Still a city Bakhmut Eastern Ukraine is the heart of the ongoing battles between Russian and Ukrainian forces.

In new field developments, the head of the Russian Wagner Group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, announced on Tuesday that the military units advanced 200 square meters in Bakhmut, and imposed control on 113,000 square meters, according to Russian media.

Prigozhin said, “Today, Wagner units advanced in different directions up to a distance of 200 meters, and took control of lands with an area of ​​113,000 square meters.” Bakhmut.

While he added that “1.46 square kilometers of the city’s lands are still under the enemy’s control, and there is only one multi-storey building left that the enemy uses as a cocoon.”

He also explained that to control Bakhmut, “there remains a residential square below Yubelnaya Street and a small piece of the private sector, and Wagner’s units will tighten their full control over the city.”

Ukrainian soldier on the Bakhmut front (archive from Reuters)

gains against the Russians?

These statements come after Ukraine announced, earlier on Tuesday, that it had achieved gains against the Russians near the city of Bakhmut, where battles have been taking place for months, after it repelled a barrage of Russian missiles at night.

“In recent days, our forces liberated about 20 square kilometers north and south of the outskirts of Bakhmut,” said Ukrainian Deputy Defense Minister Gana Malyar, according to AFP.

It also added that Russian forces continue to advance inside the city itself, where “the last pockets of Ukrainian resistance in the west are surrounded and the city is completely destroyed by artillery bombardment.”

Ukrainian forces in the vicinity of Bakhmut (archives from France Press)

The longest and deadliest

While Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky downplayed expectations, stressing that it is not the expected large-scale counterattack, which Kiev has been preparing for for months and its army needs “more time” to accomplish it.

It is noteworthy that the battle of Bakhmut, the destroyed city, of which the Russians control more than 90%, has become the longest and bloodiest since the beginning of the Russian military operation in Ukraine on February 24, 2022.

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