KYIV (Reuters) – Moscow confirmed that its forces had retreated north after Ukrainian forces launched a new offensive north of the battlefield town of Bakhmut. It was a retreat that Russian private army commander Mr. Wagner described as a rout.
Russia’s setback following similar reports of Ukrainian forces marching south of the city was to encircle Russian forces at Moscow’s main objective, Bakhmut, during the bloodiest months of the war.
“In a three-day counterattack, the Ukrainian army has liberated 17.3 square kilometers (6.6 square miles) of territory in the Bakhmut district,” Serhiy Cherevati, spokesman for the Ukrainian Army “Eastern” Group, said on the messaging app Telegram.
Both sides are now reporting the biggest Ukrainian gains in six months, although Ukraine has given few details and played down suggestions a huge, long-planned counteroffensive has officially begun.
Russian Defence Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said Ukraine had launched an assault north of Bakhmut with more than 1,000 troops and up to 40 tanks, a scale that if confirmed would amount to the biggest Ukrainian offensive since November.
The Russians had repelled 26 attacks but troops in one area had fallen back to regroup in more favourable positions near the Berkhivka reservoir northwest of Bakhmut, Konashenkov said.
Yevgeny Prigozhin, head of the Wagner forces that have led the campaign in the city, said in an audio message:
“What Konashenkov described, unfortunately, is called ‘a rout’ and not a regrouping”.
In a separate video message, Prigozhin said the Ukrainians had seized high ground overlooking Bakhmut and opened the main highway leading into the city from the West. “The loss of the Belkivka Reservoir, the loss of this territory they abandoned, today alone amounts to 5 square kilometers,” Prigozhin said.
“The enemy has completely unblocked the Chasif Yar-Bakhmut road that we had blocked. occupied high ground,” said Prigozhin, who repeatedly criticized the Russian regular army last week and was convicted of undersupplying Bakhmut’s men.
Two rockets hit an industrial park in the Russian territory of Luhansk, about 100 kilometers behind the front lines, according to Russian-based officials. A video posted online showed a huge column of smoke rising over the city. The attack came just outside the range of Ukraine’s previously deployed main battlefield missiles, a day after Britain announced it would deploy long-range cruise missiles.
Ukrainian soldiers in tanks on the road to the front-line town of Bakhmut
Ukrainian military personnel ride tanks on the road to the front-line town of Bakhmut during the Russian offensive against Ukraine on May 12, 2023 in the Donetsk region of Ukraine.
The Ukrainian army’s advance near Bakhmut appears to have started on Tuesday, with Ukrainian troops southwest of the town saying they had defeated a Russian brigade and regained some of the land. Prigozhin also said that the Russian brigade fled there.
Reuters was unable to independently verify the situation in the region. In a report on Friday evening, the Ukrainian military command referred to the fighting in Bakhmut and Russian artillery shelling of surrounding towns, but did not mention the Russian advance or retreat.
