Russia ratified on Tuesday that Bakhmut it is a key target of his offense military in Ukraine, determined to defend that eastern city practically surrounded and devastated by months of fighting.
The Russians have been trying since the summer to take the city in the Donbass Basin, theater of the bloodiest battle since the start of the invasion of Ukraine a little over a year ago. Both sides acknowledged high human losses, without providing figures.
“This city is an important defense center for Ukrainian troops in the Donbas. Its capture will allow for new offensive operations, breaking through the defense lines of the Armed Forces of Ukraine,” Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said during a televised meeting with officials military.
In recent weeks the Russians, led by the Wagner paramilitary group, have progressively advanced and already seem to control the accesses to the city from the north, east and south.
an extreme situation
Ukraine has vowed to continue defending Bakhmut, although one of its soldiers in the area has told AFP He considered his downfall inevitable. and that some units had begun to withdraw.
Ukrainian President Volodimir Zelensky revealed on Monday that he had asked his general staff “find the right strength” continue to defend Bakhmut.
Presidency adviser Mikhailo Podoliak said there was a “consensus” in the Ukrainian army on the “need to continue defending the city and exhausting enemy forces.”
Outside Bakhmut, some Ukrainian soldiers said so Kiev is losing control of the city.
“Baymut will fall”, an exhausted soldier in the town of Chasiv Yar, 10km west of the front line, told AFP.
Some Ukrainian units have begun withdrawing “in small groups,” he added.
According to kyiv, there are currently fewer than 4,000 civilians left in Bakhmut, compared more than 70,000 inhabitants had before the Russian military intervention.
To strengthen the forces of Kiev, Poland has announced that it will send this week ten Leopard tanks.
slaughter
Ukraine said it had identified a soldier whose execution went viral in a video shared on social media. kyiv therefore called for an investigation by the International Criminal Court.
In the recording, an alleged captured soldier is seen standing in a trench, smoking a cigarette, shot by an automatic weapon after screaming “Glory to Ukraine!”.
“According to preliminary data, the deceased is a soldier of the 30th Mechanized Brigade, Tymofii Mikolaiovich Shadura,” the Ukrainian military said on Telegram.
The soldier disappeared on February 3 as he participated in the fighting around Bakhmut, the military explained.
AFP could not independently verify where or when these images were taken or whether they showed, as claimed by Ukrainian officials, a prisoner of war.
Zelensky stated this the video collects the “brutal massacre” of a Ukrainian soldier at the hands of Russian forces. “We will find the killers,” he promised.
The president will receive the Secretary General of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres in Kiev on Wednesday, who arrived in Poland on Tuesday.
In Belarus, Russia’s only European ally, President Alexander Lukashenko reported the arrest of more than 20 people concerning the alleged sabotage of a Russian military aircraft last month near Minsk.
The main suspect, presented as a Russian-Ukrainian who worked for the Kiev special services, as well as “more than 20 of his accomplices who were on Belarusian territory” have been arrested to date, Lukashenko said, quoted by the agency state road Belta. .
The spokesman for Ukrainian diplomacy, Oleg Nikolenko, denied that the main suspect worked for Kiev and he denounced “a new attempt to create an artificial threat”.
In late February, the Belarusian opposition in exile claimed that a Russian military aircraft had been destroyed at the Machulishchy airfield near Minsk.
The press indicated that it was an A-50 surveillance aircraft.
The Kremlin declined to comment on the incident, but Lukashenko acknowledged it on Tuesday a Russian Army A-50 aircraft had been attacked.
Belarus is not directly involved in the Russian offensive in Ukraine but lent its territory for the initial assault a year ago.
Source: Clarin
Mary Ortiz is a seasoned journalist with a passion for world events. As a writer for News Rebeat, she brings a fresh perspective to the latest global happenings and provides in-depth coverage that offers a deeper understanding of the world around us.