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The fight for Bakhmut

Ukrainians have pledged to hold Bakhmut even as Russian forces continue to encroach on the devastated city.

The fight for Bakhmut
Ukrainian soldiers fire a self-propelled howitzer towards Russian positions near Bakhmut. [Libkos/AP Photos]
Published On 6 Mar 20236 Mar 2023
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Ukrainian military leaders are determined to hold onto Bakhmut, Kyiv officials said on Monday, even as Russian forces continued to encroach on the devastated eastern Ukrainian city that they have sought to capture for months at the cost of thousands of lives.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s office said he chaired a meeting with military officials during which the country’s top brass advocated strengthening Ukrainian positions there.

Intense Russian shelling targeted the Donetsk region city and nearby villages as Moscow deployed more resources there in an apparent bid to finish off Bakhmut’s resistance, according to local officials.

“Civilians are fleeing the region to escape Russian shelling continuing round the clock as additional Russian troops and weapons are being deployed there,” Donetsk Governor Pavlo Kyrylenko said.

Russian forces that invaded Ukraine just over a year ago have been bearing down on Bakhmut since August, putting Kyiv’s troops on the defensive but unable to deliver a knockout blow.

Some analysts say its possible fall is unlikely to bring a turning point in the conflict.

US Secretary of Defence Lloyd Austin endorsed that view on Monday, saying during a visit to Jordan that Bakhmut has “more of a symbolic value than … strategic and operational value”.

In recent days, Ukrainian units destroyed two key bridges just outside Bakhmut, including one linking it to the nearby hilltop town of Chasiv Yar along the last remaining Ukrainian resupply route, according to UK military intelligence officials and other Western analysts.

Demolishing the bridges could be part of efforts to slow down the Russian offensive if Ukrainian forces start pulling back from the city.

Yevgeny Prigozhin, the millionaire owner of the Wagner Group military company that spearheaded the Bakhmut offensive, has been at loggerheads with the Russian defence ministry and repeatedly accused it of failing to provide his forces with ammunition.

On Sunday, he again criticised top military brass for moving slowly to deliver the promised ammunition, questioning whether the delay was caused “by red tape or treason”.

Putin’s stated ambition is to seize full control of the four provinces, including Donetsk, that Moscow illegally annexed last year. Russia controls about half of Donetsk province, and to take the remaining half of that province its forces must go through Bakhmut.

Ukraine and its Western allies do not recognise any of Russia’s annexation moves, dismissing them as meaningless attempts at grabbing land.

Bakhmut is the only approach to bigger Ukrainian-held cities since Ukrainian troops took back Izyum in Kharkiv province during a counteroffensive last September.

Bakhmut has taken on almost mythic importance to its defenders.

It has become like Mariupol — the port city in the same province that Russia captured after an 82-day siege that eventually came down to a mammoth steel mill where determined Ukrainian fighters held out along with civilians.

the battle for Bakhmut
Ukrainian soldiers prepare to fire a self-propelled howitzer towards Russian positions near Bakhmut, Donetsk region. [Libkos/AP Photos]
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the battle for Bakhmut
Ukrainian soldiers in a trench under Russian shelling on the front line close to Bakhmut. [Libkos/AP Photos]
the battle for Bakhmut
A Ukrainian serviceman flies a drone to spot Russian positions near the city of Bakhmut. [Aris Messinis/AFP]
the battle for Bakhmut
Ukrainian soldiers ride an infantry vehicle along a road not far from Bakhmut. [Anatolii Stepanov/AFP]
the battle for Bakhmut
A Ukrainian police van used to evacuate civilians drives on the highway in Khromove near Bakhmut. [Evgeniy Maloletka/AP Photo]
the battle for Bakhmut
A woman evacuates her house with only a bag for her personal belongings, in the village of Minkivka, north of Bakhmut. [Ignacio Marin/Anadolu Agency]
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the battle for Bakhmut
A man cries as he evacuates his house in Minkivka. [Ignacio Marin/Anadolu Agency]
the battle for Bakhmut
'Civilians are fleeing the region to escape Russian shelling continuing round the clock as additional Russian troops and weapons are being deployed there,' Donetsk Governor Pavlo Kyrylenko said. [Ignacio Marin/Anadolu Agency]
the battle for Bakhmut
A view of the road in Minkivka, north of Bakhmut. [Ignacio Marin/Anadolu Agency]
the battle for Bakhmut
An elderly man evacuated from the village of Minkivka sits on a couch at the shelter in Kramatorsk. [Ignacio Marin/Anadolu Agency]


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