Kiev (EFE) ”, assured the commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces, Valery Zaluzhnyi.
The city of Bakhmut, in the eastern region of Donetsk, has been resisting for months the offensive of the Russian assault troops made up of the private command of mercenaries from the Wagner Group, who are fighting house to house to try to control the area.
Ukraine and Russia consider this city, practically destroyed by the bombings and where barely a few thousand inhabitants remain (it once had 70,000), an important strategic and symbolic point that must be controlled.
Zaluzhnyi stressed, on his Facebook page, that the “defensive operation on the Bakhmut front is of paramount importance from a strategic point of view to deter the enemy.”
He also stressed that he respects “the strength, courage and indomitability of the Ukrainian soldiers in Bakhmut”, a front where casualties number in the thousands on both sides.
Bakhmut has become one of the main war fronts since last August and, according to the Ukrainian Army, “positional battles continue today, with the (Russian) enemy trying to capture the city.”
Members of the General Staff of Ukraine met on Tuesday with the country’s president, Volodimir Zalenski, to discuss the situation in the area and they all supported the need to protect and strengthen this front.
The Wagner group announces the seizure of a new town north of Bakhmut
The Russian Wagner mercenary group took the town of Zaliznianske, north of Bakhmut, further tightening the siege around that Ukrainian stronghold in Donbas.
As the head of that paramilitary formation, Yevgueni Prigozhin, announced on his Telegram account, “despite the lack of ammunition, despite the ‘hunger for supplies’, in the context of fierce fighting, the assault units tighten the siege of Bakhmut. Today in the morning the town of Zaliznianske was taken by Wagner”.
Prigozhin described the situation in Bakhmut on Monday as “very difficult” and assured that Ukrainian troops are fighting “for every meter”.
According to Wagner, the Ukrainian Armed Forces are sending “more and more reserves” to the town, while their units “are advancing” in the city, having received 27 truckloads of ammunition to maintain the siege.