The General Staff of the Ukrainian Army informed today that Russian forces continue to conduct offensive operations on the Bakhmut front and fighting for the disputed city - the real epicenter of the conflict, in eastern Ukraine - continues. "The enemy continues to focus its main efforts on conducting offensive actions on the fronts of Kupiansk, Lyman, Bakhmut, Avdiivka and Mariinka. Overall, there
were 53 clashes on these fronts in one day; the cities of Bakhmut and Marinka remain the epicenter of hostilities," it said in a statement.
Subsequently, the spokesman of the eastern group of the Ukrainian armed forces, Serhiy Cherevaty, told Suspilne that the country's defense forces continue to hold positions in the southwestern part of Bakhmut, fighting against the Russians. "President (Zelensky) is right: the city was basically destroyed from the face of the earth. The enemy destroys it daily with massive air and artillery attacks, and our units report that the situation is extremely difficult. Our military holds fortifications and several premises in the southwestern part of the city. Heavy fighting is ongoing," he noted.
According to Cherevaty, Moscow attaches too much symbolic importance to Bakhmut. "Russia draws attention to this Bakhmut as if they had taken the Dnipro. In fact, they didn't take it to the end. The city is destroyed, it does not bring them any military or political advantage. They have not taken the downtown district in 9 months, we are trying to press on the flanks, not to give them peace and, if possible, to fight back," the spokesman added.
For her part, Ukrainian Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maliar said Ukrainian forces had "semi-surrounded" Bakhmut, whom Russia claimed to have captured yesterday. "The advance of our troops into the suburbs along the flanks, which is still ongoing, makes it very difficult
for the enemy to stay in Bakhmut. Our troops have taken the city in semi-encirclement, which gives us the opportunity to destroy them. Therefore, the enemy must defend himself in the part of the city he controls. Our defenders maintain control over industrial and infrastructure facilities and the private sector in the Litak area," he said.
And from Hiroshima, where Zelensky is attending the final day of the G7 summit today, his spokesman Serhii Nykyforov had to explain to the media that the Ukrainian president's statements about Bakhmut were intended to indicate that the city did not fall into Russian hands. "As for the answers of the President of Ukraine to questions about Bakhmut. Journalist's question: - The Russians say they took Bakhmut. Reply from the President: — I think not. In this way the president denied the capture of Bakhmut," Nykyforov wrote in a message on Facebook.
After yesterday's statements by the head of the Wagner group, Yevgeny Prighozin, according to which his men took "full control of the city", overnight the Russian Defense Ministry announced the "liberation" of Bakhmut. "In the tactical direction of Artyomovsk (the Russian name of Bakhmut, ed.), the assault teams of the private military company Wagner, with the support of the artillery and aviation of the Southern Tactical Group completed the liberation of the city," the ministry said. And Russian President Vladimir Putin congratulated the strike teams of the Wagner mercenary group for the "liberation of Artyomovsk", in statements quoted by Tass.
The announcement of the capture of Bakhmut by Russia has no strategic significance, as it will not allow Moscow's exhausted forces to create a bridgehead for further offensive operations, the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) argues in its daily report on the progress of the conflict. The U.S. think tank also believes that Prigozin's statement about the departure of his mercenaries from the disputed city could be an attempt to mislead Ukrainian troops.
"Prygozhin's victory over the remaining districts of Bakhmut is purely symbolic, even if it were true," the think tank wrote. The last blocks of eastern Bakhmut, which Prigozhin said were captured by Wagner group forces, are neither tactically nor operationally important. Their capture does not provide Russian forces with operationally significant territory to continue offensive operations or any particularly strong position from which to defend against possible Ukrainian counterattacks."
Experts at the study center point out that continued Ukrainian counterattacks to the north, west and southwest of Bakhmut will complicate any further advance of Russian troops beyond the city in the short term.
ANSA Agency
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