The battle for Bakhmut rages on again as Ukrainian forces for the devastated city resist a coordinated three-way assault by Kremlin forces as well as efforts to block supplies from reaching them, analysts and Russian officials say.
Bakhmut in the eye of the British Ministry of Defense
- In turn, the British Ministry of Defense said that “Russia has reactivated its attack” on Bakhmut, in reference to the recent developments in the city in eastern Ukraine, which for eight and a half months was the scene of the longest and bloodiest battle during the ongoing war.
- The British Ministry’s assessment stated that “Ukrainian defenders still control the western neighborhoods of the city, but they are exposed to intense Russian artillery fire, especially during the past 48 hours.”
In the context, the Ukrainian President’s Office said, on Friday, that the past 24 hours in Bakhmut witnessed the destruction of two kindergartens and residential buildings. The city has already become a ghost town.
The regular army backs Wagner
- The British Army also noticed that increasingly regular Russian forces were joining the fray.
- The British army said on “Twitter” as well, “Wagner offensive groups continue to advance on the main front through the city center, while the airborne forces relieved some Wagner units that were securing the northern and southern wings of the operation.”
- However, he noted that although the Ukrainian defenders had “significant resupply problems”, their withdrawal from the Babakhmut positions was taking place in an orderly fashion.
Across Ukraine, at least three civilians were killed and nine others injured from Thursday to Friday, according to the Ukrainian presidential office.
Fighting continued in other areas of the Donetsk region, which includes Pakhmut, in which five people were killed in a Russian missile strike that hit the city of Sloviansk on Friday, according to the governor of the region, Pavlo Kirilenko.
