Kiev/Moscow (EFE)
As confirmed today by the Ukrainian General Staff, in the direction of Bakhmut there is fierce fighting and Russian troops are trying to take control of the entire city, where hostilities have not ceased for months.
“On the Bakhmut front, the enemy continues its offensive actions and tries to take full control of the city of Bakhmut, where fierce fighting is taking place,” the military report indicated.
The Russians also prioritize the Limán, Avdíivka and Mariinka fronts, he adds.
War in Ukraine: Pressure mounts on Bakhmut
The Uktanian analyst Dmitriy Segeyev assured today on the Freedom television channel that “the enemy presses simultaneously from three directions.”
According to this expert, there are fierce fighting in the area of the Avangard stadium and the city’s train station, which would give them an advantage when advancing from the center to the west where the Ukrainian troops are concentrated.
However, Sergeyev assures that despite the statements of the Russian side, currently about 40% of Bakhmut’s territory remains under Ukrainian control.
Meanwhile, the Russian version of the situation in the strategic town is different.
According to several Telegram channels specialized in covering the conflict, the Russian forces have practically cut off the supply road for the Ukrainian troops from Chasiv Yar, but the enemy maintains the ability to resupply by secondary routes.
In addition, Russian experts maintain that the Moscow forces have already taken control of the Avandar stadium, where the fighting has not stopped for days.
The Ukrainians, according to the Russian version, would have transferred reinforcements to the area of the train station to maintain their positions and prevent the assault on the western neighborhood, their last bastion of resistance.
Waiting for the counteroffensive
The imminent Ukrainian counteroffensive is also one of the most popular topics on Russian search engines these days.
Russian officials at various levels have issued statements commenting on the announced counterattack, most of which downplay it.
The leader of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov, commented in this regard that the Ukrainian counteroffensive only benefits Russia because it will allow its troops to get “more trophies” from the West.
“It will be the icing on the cake. Trophies in the form of Western weapons and lots of prisoners who will tell the camera, as always, that they are cooks or electricians, ”Kadyrov wrote on his social networks.
In his usual speech of the day, the Ukrainian president, Volodimir Zelensky, commented on the meeting he had with his General Staff on the situation at the front, in which he reviewed the state of the new brigades that Ukraine is forming in view of the counteroffensive that hopes to launch this spring.
“The main focus is on the battles for Avdiivka and Bakhmut, for the Lugansk region, for each of those directions where the enemy is trying to break through the defense of all of Ukraine,” he said.
Meanwhile, according to the Ukrainian military, Russia is considering evacuating civilians from territories under its control in Zaporizhia and Kherson before the imminent counteroffensive from kyiv.