Ukraine’s top military commander said on Tuesday that stopping Russia’s advance in the ruined city of Bakhmut remained of “prime strategic importance” and declared that Ukrainian troops would hold the line. there despite staggering casualties on both sides.
“It is the key to the stability of defending the entire front,” General Valeriy Zaluzhny, commander of the Ukrainian armed forces, said in a statement after meeting with President Volodymyr Zelensky and top officials. other head of Ukraine.
While Russian forces now control the eastern half of Bakhmut, Ukrainian forces in the western half have taken defensive positions in abandoned fortifications behind a river that bisects the city. Ukrainian officials say they have stabilized control of the last remaining route they can use to resupply and reinforce their forces.
The commander of Ukraine’s ground forces, Colonel Oleksandr Syrsky, said on Monday that Russian forces, led by mercenaries from the private military company Wagner, were trying to reach the center of Bakhmut.
“Every attempt to capture the city by the enemy was repelled by artillery, tanks and other fire,” he said.
Wrought since last summer, the battle for Bakhmut is one of the longest and deadliest since Russia launched an all-out invasion nearly 13 months ago, and in recent months Moscow has allocated a lot of resources to try to take the city.
Some Ukrainian and Western military analysts have questioned the wisdom of maintaining a defensive line around Bakhmut, arguing that the rising casualty rate is too high to justify keeping a town with political and symbolic echoes but of only marginal strategic value.
The wisdom of Ukraine’s strategy is difficult to assess because there is no reliable, independent assessment of casualties. However, both sides agree that tens of thousands of Russians and Ukrainians were wounded and killed in the battle.
Ivan Kyrychevskyi, a Ukrainian defense analyst, says that Ukrainian forces have been waiting as long as possible to withdraw to the western half of the city and have now established a “fall zone” where Russian troops will continue. loss of a large number of soldiers. weakened their forces against an expected Ukrainian attack in the spring.
“The current situation is critical to the success of our future counterattack,” he said.
In the northwest corner of Bakhmut, Wagner soldiers posted pictures from an industrial complex, showing that they had arrived at the same site that Mr. Zelensky made a daring visit in December to rally troops. Ukrainian soldiers.
Britain’s military intelligence agency said on Tuesday that Russia’s ammunition shortages may have worsened in recent weeks, to the point that forces are distributing ammunition across parts of the country. eastern front.
With Ukrainian soldiers also voicing concerns about their own ammunition shortages, officials in Kiev are calling on Western allies to speed up arms deliveries. Oleksii Reznikov, Ukraine’s Defense Minister, said on Tuesday that negotiations are continuing to buy more fighter jets to defend Ukraine’s skies.
Reznikov told reporters that air power would be crucial for a successful counterattack and that Russian forces had moved to defensive positions in southern Ukraine, where they would try to retain control. control the strip of land between Crimea from Russia. He also said Moscow is making contingency plans, by digging an elaborate system of trenches in Crimea; New grooves are visible in recently published satellite images.
“The Russians believe that the Ukrainians will launch a counterattack,” Reznikov said. “And this is a good sign. We created the future. They have already lost. Once they turned on the defensive in their special military operation, they lost the war.”
