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state of affairs ‘particularly scorching’ in Bakhmut By Reuters

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© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy visits a web site of residential buildings just lately broken by a Russian missile strike, amid Russia’s assault on Ukraine, in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine March 27, 2023. Ukrainian Presidential Press Service/Handou

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By Nick Starkov and Ronald Popeski

KYIV (Reuters) -Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy mentioned on Sunday that the navy state of affairs was “significantly scorching” round Bakhmut, with no letup in a months-long drive to grab the town, essentially the most protracted battle within the Russian invasion.

The founding father of Russia’s Wagner mercenary pressure, Yevgeny Prigozhin, mentioned his troops had raised a Russian flag on the executive constructing within the metropolis.

However there was no indication from Ukrainian officers that Bakhmut had fallen into Russian arms. Prigozhin has beforehand made claims that have been untimely.

“Thanks to our troopers who’re preventing in Avdiivka, Maryinka, and Bakhmut. Particularly Bakhmut,” Zelenskiy mentioned in his nightly video deal with. “It’s particularly scorching there.”

Russian forces have for months been attempting to encircle and seize Bakhmut, a city of 70,000 earlier than the Russian invasion launched over a yr in the past.

Prigozhin, in an audio message posted on his press service’s Telegram account, mentioned: “From a authorized viewpoint, Bakhmut has been taken. The enemy is concentrated within the western elements.”

A senior Ukrainian official had earlier described the state of affairs across the city as “tense,” with the navy command fastidiously contemplating each transfer.

Deputy Defence Minister Hanna Maliar mentioned Ukrainian forces have been persevering with to defend their positions, with Russian forces paying scant consideration to their losses as they mounted assaults.

“The state of affairs in Bakhmut stays tense,” Maliar mentioned on Telegram.

“However each navy resolution and each step is weighed fastidiously … We reply to the prevailing state of affairs appropriately, bearing in mind all circumstances, duties and the precept of navy feasibility.”

Zelenskiy and navy commanders agreed final month to take care of the defence of Bakhmut amid public debate over whether or not it was greatest to stay or undertake different defensive positions.

CLASHES IN CITY CENTRE

Outstanding Ukrainian navy analyst Oleh Zhdanov mentioned preventing had engulfed the town centre. Ukrainian forces had repelled 25 enemy assaults, however Russian forces had captured the AZOM steel plant, which Ukrainian troops had defended for days.

“The enemy is attacking the town centre from the north, the east and the south and is attempting to take the town below its full management,” Zhdanov, who has shut ties to the Ukrainian navy, mentioned in a video proven on YouTube.

“In some locations, we’ve got been profitable and in some locations we’ve got even staged counter-attacks. However the enemy occasionally registers some success in view of the variety of its forces and the variety of its day by day assaults.”

One other navy analyst, Yuri Butusov, mentioned Ukraine was hampered by a scarcity of defensive planning, significantly close to Avdiivka, a second city below assault in Donetsk area.

“We nonetheless lack planning by way of constructing stationary, well-considered, well-defended defensive positions,” Butusov mentioned in a weekend interview with Ukrainian NV Radio.

“That is the character of the disaster close to Avdiivka and in different areas of the entrance. The enemy is knocking out one place after one other. And there’s no rear place.”

In his video deal with, Zelenskiy additionally mentioned that two individuals had died in a Russian mortar assault close to the city of Konotop within the northern area of Sumy.

He famous earlier stories that Russian shelling had killed six individuals within the metropolis of Kostyantynivka in Donetsk area in japanese Ukraine. Eleven individuals have been injured.


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