KYIV,Ukraine (AP) December, 10 — Russian forces have “destroyed” the eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said, while Ukraine’s military on Saturday reported missile, rocket and air strikes in multiple parts of the country that Moscow is trying to conquer after months of resistance.
The latest battles of Russia’s 9 1/2 month war in Ukraine have centered on four provinces that Russian President Vladimir Putin triumphantly — and illegally — claimed to have annexed in late September. The fighting indicates Russia’s struggle to establish control of those regions and Ukraine’s persistence to reclaim them.
Zelenskyy said the situation “remains very difficult” in several frontline cities in eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk and Luhansk provinces. Together, the provinces make up the Donbas, an expansive industrial region bordering Russia that Putin identified as a focus from the war’s outset and where Moscow-backed separatists have fought since 2014. “Bakhmut, Soledar, Marinka, Kreminna. There was no living space at the bottom of an area that had not been destroyed by shells and fires for a long time,” Zelensky said in his nightly video address, citing the cities he refocused on. said. “The occupiers actually destroyed Bakhmut, another city in Donbass, which was burned down by Russian troops.”
Zelensky did not clarify what he meant by the word “destroyed.” Some buildings still stand and residents still roam the streets of the city.
The Ukrainian Armed Forces General Staff reported rocket attacks, about 20 airstrikes and more than 60 rocket attacks across Ukraine from Friday to Saturday. Spokesman Oleksandr Shtupun said the most active fighting took place in He Bakhmut district, where more than 20 populated places were set on fire. He said Ukrainian forces had repelled Russian attacks in Donetsk and neighboring Luhansk.
A harsh Russian offensive to the east succeeded in capturing most of Luhansk in the summer. Donetsk has escaped the same fate, with Russian forces pouring men and resources around Bakhmut in recent weeks to besiege the city, analysts and Ukrainian officials said.
Fighting for Bakhmut intensified after Ukrainian forces recaptured the southern city of Kherson about a month ago, putting Putin’s desire for tangible gains after weeks of significant setbacks in Ukraine. was shown.
The capture of Bakhmut would cut Ukrainian supply lines and pave the way for Russian forces to advance towards Kramatorsk and Sloviansk, the main Ukrainian strongholds in Donetsk. Russia has been bombarding Bakhmut with rockets for more than half a year. After his army forced the Ukrainians to withdraw from Luhansk in his July, the ground attack accelerated.
But some analysts say they will relentlessly occupy Bakhmut and its surrounding areas, which have been under heavy shelling in recent weeks and where Ukrainian officials reported some residents were living in damp basements. This raises questions about Russia’s strategic logic that
The War Institute, a Washington think tank, said, “The brutal, attrition-based, attrition-based cost of his six months of fighting for #Bakhmut is that the #Russians will take his Bakhmut. It far outweighs the operational gains that can be made.” Posted to Twitter feed on Thursday.
On Friday, Putin said a 2015 peace deal in eastern Ukraine brokered by France and Germany had bought Ukraine time to prepare for war with Russia later this year, according to former German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s recent criticized the comment. The deal sparked a war with Ukrainian forces, which pro-Russian separatists had occupied in Donbass a year ago and escalated into war with Russia itself following a full-scale invasion on February 24. The purpose was to cool down the tension after the event.
