KYIV(Reuters) – Ukraine controls a key supply route to Bakhmut, a Russian military spokesman said.
For ten months before him, the Russian army had attempted to penetrate the dilapidated ruins of what was once a town of 70,000 people. Kiev has pledged to defend Bakhmut, which Russia sees as a launching point for attacks on other cities.
“For weeks the Russians have been talking about capturing the ‘road of life’ and constantly capturing it,” Serhiy Cherevati, a spokesman for the Ukrainian military in the east, told local news site Dzerkalo Tyzhnia.
The Road of Life is an important road that connects the ruined Bakhmut to the nearby western town of Chasib Yar, a distance of just over 10.56 miles (17 kilometers).
The Ukrainian military high command said in a daily update on Sunday that the day before it had repulsed 58 of his attacks by Russian forces along part of the front from Bakhmut through Avdiuka to Mariinka in the Donetsk region further south.
According to military analysts, if Bakhmut falls, the next likely target for Russian attack is Chasib Yar, which sits on high ground and is believed to have Ukrainian forces establishing defenses nearby.
Evgeny Prigozhin, the founder of the Wagner Group of Russia, who has an often decisive record of success, advanced his troops about 100 to 150 meters (109 to 164 yards) at Bakhmut, leaving the city behind. He said almost 3 square kilometers had fallen into Ukraine’s hands.
However, he said he lost 94 soldiers. “If we had more ammunition, we would have been five times less,” Prigozin said in an audio statement published Saturday night on his press service’s messaging app Telegram.
Separately, in almost his 90-minute video interview with Russian military blogger Semyon Pegov published on Saturday, Prigozhin threatened to withdraw troops from Bakhmut and said he would only have ammunition for a few days. .
Prigozhin, citing a letter dated 28th, apparently sent to Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu, said: “If the ammunition shortage persists, we will probably have to withdraw part of our troops.”
It was not initially known when the interview was recorded. Prigogine often said that the regular army was not giving his men the ammunition they needed, and sometimes accused cadres of betrayal.
“We have to stop deceiving the public and saying that everything is fine,” Prigogine said in an interview. “I have to be honest,Russia is on the verge of catastrophe. ”
