Russia-Ukraine updates: Russia attempting ‘to encircle’ Bakhmut

More than 1,000 people gathered on Moscow’s Red Square for the 70th anniversary of the death of Soviet leader Joseph Stalin, whose divisive legacy looms over the Ukraine conflict.

Kyiv says the offensive is driven by Stalin-era imperialistic tendencies, while the heightened repression of critics in Russia is reminiscent of Soviet methods.

But in Russia, many praise him for single-handedly defeating Hitler in 1945 – a version heavily contested by historians – and restoring Russia’s grandeur.

People waving communist flags or holding portraits of the late dictator waited in a long line to lay flowers on his grave near the Kremlin wall.

Estonians are voting in a general election that the centre-right Reform Party of Prime Minister Kaja Kallas, one of Europe’s most outspoken supporters of Ukraine, is favourite to win.

She faces a challenge from the populist opposition EKRE party that is seeking to limit the Baltic nation’s exposure to the Ukraine crisis and is blaming the government for citizens’ economic misery.

Kallas, 45, is seeking a second term, with her standing enhanced by her international appeals to impose sanctions on Moscow.

Soldiers returning from the front lines in eastern Ukraine need treatment for their physical wounds. But the World Health Organization says doctors need to prioritise their mental health too.

The death toll from a strike this week on an apartment block in southern Zaporizhia has risen to 13, the Ukrainian presidency has said.

The attack on March 2 hit a multistorey apartment building in the southern city. A pregnant woman was among nine people rescued from the rubble.

Zaporizhia is one of the four regions – along with Donetsk, Luhansk and Kherson – that Russia claims to have annexed but never fully controlled.

Russia has said it would agree to extend the Black Sea grain deal only if the interests of its own agricultural producers are taken into account.

Maria Zakharova, a spokeswoman for the foreign ministry, reiterated Moscow’s position.

“If this agreement is equal, then we have always fulfilled our part and are going to fulfil it in all the agreements,” she said, according to TASS news wire, adding that Russia would be against “goading and machinations”.

Russia’s agricultural exports have not been explicitly targeted by Western sanctions, but Moscow says restrictions on its payments, logistics and insurance industries are a “barrier” to its export of grains and fertilisers.

Ukraine is reinforcing the Bakhmut area with elite units, while the regular Russian army and forces of the private military Wagner Group have made further advances into the city’s northern suburbs.

The Institute for the Study of War says Russian forces appear to have secured sufficient ground to “conduct a turning movement” against parts of Bakhmut.

This “is different from the aim of an encirclement, which is to trap and destroy enemy forces”. It instead aims to force the enemy to abandon prepared defensive positions.

The Ukrainian command has signalled that it will likely withdraw rather than risk an encirclement, the Washington, DC-based think tank said.

Latest on #Ukraine:

Russian forces appear to have secured a sufficient positional advantage to conduct a turning movement against parts of #Bakhmut but have not yet forced Ukrainian forces to withdraw and will not likely be able to encircle the city soon. https://t.co/MrFvmVbnTj pic.twitter.com/ijHXmHYVMl

— ISW (@TheStudyofWar) March 5, 2023

Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu has met commanders of his army in the war zone in Ukraine, according to Moscow.

Shoigu was informed about the current situation and further plans on the front, the Russian defence ministry announced.

A soundless video showed him alongside the chief of general staff and commander of the Russian troops in Ukraine, Valery Gerasimov, as well as his deputy Sergey Surovikin.

The remaining 3,000 civilians in Bakhmut — which once boasted a population of more than 73,000 — are living in shelters without access to gas, electricity or water.

Ukrainian forces face increasingly strong pressure from Russian forces, with intense fighting taking place in and around the eastern city.

The British intelligence says recent evidence suggests an increase in “close combat” in Ukraine, probably due to Russia’s shortage of munitions.

It said Russian mobilised reservists were being ordered to assault a Ukrainian concrete strongpoint armed with only “firearms and shovels”, likely entrenching tools employed for hand-to-hand combat.

Latest Defence Intelligence update on the situation in Ukraine – 5 March 2023

Find out more about Defence Intelligence: https://t.co/1rgcwN71nQ pic.twitter.com/aoDmbCIQ6v

— Ministry of Defence 🇬🇧 (@DefenceHQ) March 5, 2023

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu says Ankara is working hard to extend a UN-backed initiative that enabled Ukraine to export grain from ports blockaded by Russia following its invasion.

“We are working hard for the smooth implementation and further extension of the Black Sea grain deal,” Cavusoglu said in a speech at the UN Conference on Least Developed Countries being held in Doha, Qatar.

Cavusoglu also said he discussed the extension efforts with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.

The Black Sea Grain Initiative brokered by the UN and Turkey last July allowed grain to be exported from three Ukrainian ports. The agreement was extended in November and will expire on March 18 unless an extension is agreed upon.

The Russian army has hit a command centre of the Ukrainian forces’ Azov Regiment in the southeastern Zaporizhia region, the Russian defence ministry said.

The ministry did not elaborate on the attack, in its daily update on what Moscow terms the “special military operation” in Ukraine.

The Azov Regiment, which had far-right and ultranationalist origins and is now a unit of Ukraine’s national guard, garnered international attention for its resistance to the Russian siege of Mariupol’s vast steelworks last year.

The Russian ministry did not mention in Sunday’s bulletin the battle around the eastern city of Bakhmut, which Russian forces are trying to capture.

A woman and two children were killed in Russian mortar shelling of a village in the southern Ukrainian region of Kherson, the head of Ukraine’s presidential office said.

“Mortar shelling of Poniativka village in Kherson region. A private house was hit,” Andriy Yermak wrote on Telegram. “Russian terrorists continue to kill civilians,” he said, providing no additional details of the attack.

Kherson was occupied by Russian troops from the early days of the invasion until its recapture in November. Since its liberation, the city has regularly been shelled from Russian positions across the Dnieper River.

Sergiy Cherevaty, a spokesman for Ukrainian forces, said on Saturday the Bakhmut situation was “difficult but under control” in the city he described as a “priority target for the enemy”.

There is fighting in and around the city, the US-based Institute for the Study of War (ISW) said, warning that Ukrainian supply routes were narrowing.

“The Russians may have intended to encircle Ukrainian forces in Bakhmut, but the Ukrainian command has signalled that it will likely withdraw rather than risk an encirclement,” ISW said on Saturday.

Ukraine and Russia have fiercely fought for the city, whose symbolic importance surpassed its military significance.

Ukraine officials said they were holding off attacks from Russian troops still attempting to surround Bakhmut, a now-destroyed eastern Ukrainian city that Moscow has been trying to capture for months.

Ukraine has pledged to defend “fortress Bakhmut” but has faced Russian troops determined to take the city that has turned into a political prize as the battle drags on.

The Ukrainian general staff said “more than 130 enemy attacks” had been repelled over the past day, including in Kupiansk, Lyman, Bakhmut and Avdiivka.

“The enemy continues its attempts to encircle the town of Bakhmut,” it said on Sunday morning.