Bakhmut in the Donetsk region has been hotly contested for weeks.
The pictures and reports from the city are frightening.
Ukraine announced a new offensive.
Frankfurt/Bachmut - The city of Bachmut in eastern Ukraine has developed into the anchor point of the Ukraine war.
Ukrainian troops are trying to hold the city, Russian soldiers want to conquer the city.
After his visit to the east of the country on Wednesday (March 22), Volodymyr Zelenskyy spoke of "great suffering".
Similar statements come from a former minister of Ukraine who joined the troops and was stationed in Bakhmut.
Meanwhile, Ukraine announced a new offensive.
Bachmut at the heart of the war: "We will not give up"
Either you fight for the Ukrainian troops or for the Russians, former infrastructure minister Volodymyr Omelyan told the US portal
Newsweek
.
There is "no alternative".
He has joined the Ukrainian troops and is now fighting for his country.
"It's our city" and
"We won't give up," Omelyan said.
Bakhmut has not only a symbolic but also a strategic importance for Ukraine and Russia.
Zelenskyi told the US broadcaster
CNN
that after conquering Bakhmut, Russian troops would be able to move to other parts of the country.
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Ukrainian soldiers ride on an armored vehicle on the front line in the Donetsk region.
© LIBKOS/dpa
At the beginning of March, Omelyan and his battalion were stationed in Bakhmut.
The situation in the city was "terrible" for him and he was also "very sad about it," he
told
Newsweek .
However, he also understands that there is no chance of returning and that the troops must continue to fight.
He told the portal that some of his comrades had had enough of "killing one at a time."
He describes it as "exhausting".
Ukraine announces new offensive in Bakhmut: "Will seize the opportunity"
The Ukrainian military assumes that the Russian troops will soon be at the end of their strength.
Meanwhile, the commander of the Ukrainian land forces, Oleksandr Syrskyj, announced an imminent counteroffensive.
This was reported by the dpa news agency.
"We will use this opportunity very soon, as we did at Kyiv, Kharkiv, Balakliya and Kupyansk," he told the Telegram news channel.
Syrskyj also praised the courage and perseverance of the Ukrainian soldiers.
Russia is said to have recorded heavy losses in Bakhmut in the past few days.
Up to 1,000 soldiers are reported to have died in one day.
Material losses also become a problem.
(vk)
List of rubrics: © LIBKOS/dpa
