(Reuters) – The head of the Russian-controlled part of Ukraine’s Donetsk region said on Wednesday that units of the private military group Wagner were advancing on the town of Bakhmut, and a senior Ukrainian official said fighting there and in a second town was getting fiercer.
“The enemy is increasing its pressure on the regions of Bakhmut and Vahlidar,” Hana Malyar, Ukraine’s deputy defense minister, said on the messaging app Telegram.
She added that Russia is sending a large number of personnel and equipment to the battlefield despite heavy losses.
“The intensity of the fighting is increasing,” she said.
The area around Bakhmut, which had a pre-war population of 70,000, has seen some of the fiercest fighting in the 11-month-old war. The city has symbolic importance for both Russia and Ukraine, but Western military analysts say it has little strategic importance.
Denis Pushlin, who was installed by Russia as head of the regions it controls in Donetsk province, which Moscow announced its annexation last September, said the fighting was taking place in the Bakhmut neighborhoods, which were previously controlled by Ukraine.
“Units, specifically Wagner units, are advancing in Artyomovsk (the Russian name for Bakhmut) itself,” the Russian news agency TASS quoted him as saying.
“The fighting is already taking place in the suburbs and neighborhoods that until recently were under enemy control,” he added.
Russia said earlier this month it had captured Solidar, to the northeast of Bakhmut, and Klishchevka, to the south of Bakhmut, in advances the Wagner Group took credit for.
The RIA news agency reported that the capture of Solidar made it possible to block Ukrainian supply routes and take control of some areas from which Ukrainian forces were carrying out “retaliatory actions”.
Malyar, Ukraine’s deputy defense minister, said that in the generally eastern industrial region known as Donbass, Ukraine had more distinguished and committed soldiers, while Russia enjoyed an advantage in terms of the number of fighters and weapons.
“The road to our victory is difficult,” Maliar added.
