KYIV, Ukraine — Aid groups and civilians will not be able to enter Bakhmut starting Monday, the Ukrainian military said, as fighting continues to intensify during Russia’s month-long campaign to capture the strategic city. in eastern Ukraine.
Ukraine’s military said it would no longer allow aid groups to enter the city because of the risk of street fighting. The ban on volunteers’ access could be a prelude to Ukraine’s withdrawal, although the Ukrainian military insists it retains control of the city, can resupply troops and can evacuate those trapped. his love.
After months of devastating bombardment, Russian forces, including regulars and mercenaries from the private military company Wagner, now appear to have siege of Bakhmut on three sides. The Ukrainian military said street fighting had begun in two neighboring areas and that the only remaining route used by Ukrainian forces to reach the city was under Russian fire.
Speaking in a video posted online, a Ukrainian commander nicknamed Madyar said the ban on aid organizations entering Bakhmut was necessary because the current war was “dangerous even for volunteers”. Came here with good intentions to help.”
The decision to close access to the city to aid groups shows that the Ukrainian military cannot secure even areas of the city that for months were considered relatively safe, such as areas population on the west bank of the Bakhmutka River, away from the range of Russian artillery attacks. It was another sign that Russian forces were getting closer to capturing the city.
Ukraine has turned Bakhmut, a mid-sized city in the Donbas region with a population of about 70,000 before the war, into a symbol of tenacious resistance to a Russian onslaught in eastern Ukraine. The city lies in ruins and only a few thousand civilians remain there, but it is an important reward for Russian President Vladimir V. Putin, who poured troops into the battle for the city that is considered key. for his stated goal of capturing the entire Donbas region in eastern Ukraine.
The Russian Defense Ministry said on Monday that Russian forces had captured the village of Krasna Gora, on the northern edge of Bakhmut, as they continued to advance into the city. The statement on Telegram, a social messaging app, comes a day after private military company Wagner, whose force helped lead the campaign to capture Russia’s Bakhmut, says that its “attack units” have taken over the village.
In a review of the battlefield on Monday, Rochan Consulting, an analysis group based in Poland, noted that Russia had encroached on Bakhmut from the north and south in recent days and said the city could fail as soon as this week.
The Ukrainian military repelled 19 attacks on Bakhmut in the past 24 hours, Colonel Serhiy Cherevaty, a spokesman for the Eastern Ukraine Military Command, said in an interview on Monday.
“Bakhmut is the focal point of the enemy’s attack and therefore the situation is very critical,” he said, but added that no turning point had been reached. Bakhmut “is under Ukraine’s control,” he said.
Colonel Cherevaty said Russian forces are sending small units to sneak into the city, but he said they have yet to gain a foothold. He said the Ukrainian army was continuing “to inflict heavy casualties on the enemy”, while hinting that Kiev’s forces would continue to fight in the besieged city.
Bakhmut has been under Russian bombardment since last spring, but in the fall Moscow’s forces turned to attack the city with prisoner brigades, driving conscripts into near-suicide attacks in an attempt to overwhelm Ukraine’s defenses.
Russian forces hit Ukrainian positions with thousands of shells a day, breaking through yards of ground through the city’s many defenses. In this furnace of violence, aid groups have continued to send volunteers carrying food and medicine and people trying to evacuate civilians. Madyar said in the video that the army will now provide aid to those who need it.
“Bakhmut was, is and is still Ukrainian – that was our main slogan,” he said, speaking in what he described as a lull in cannon fire on Sunday, though audible. repeated explosions in the recording.
Maria Varennikova contribution report.
