Ukraine’s military leadership pledges to hold Bakhmut as fighting intensifies

Europe, News March 7, 2023 , by IRIA No Comments

Kyiv’s military leadership is determined to hold onto the eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut, as the fight for the city’s control intensified in the wake of Moscow’s latest offense. Ground reports suggest that Russian forces are struggling with a shortage of ammunition.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy chaired a meeting with military officials on March 6, 2023, where he stressed that Ukraine must strengthen its position in Bakhmut to repel the Russian advances for the encirclement of the city.

Intense Russian shelling has targeted the city and its nearby villages recently. Moscow has projected more of its resources toward Bakhmut to suppress Ukrainian resistance and take control of the city in Ukraine’s Donetsk region.

According to Donetsk Governor Pavlo Kyrylenko, “Civilians are fleeing the region to escape Russian shelling continuing round the clock as additional Russian troops and weapons are being deployed there.”

Russia is trying to encircle the Bakhmut, to secure what would become its largest gain in a long time in the most intense offense since the winter this year. The intense battle for control of the city has depleted both sides’ artillery reserves, with thousands of shells fired daily along the eastern and southern fronts.

Kyiv is resorting to its European allies to procure more ammunition. Moscow on the other hand is under pressure from the Wagner private army, leading the Bakhmut assault. Wagner’s boss demanded more ammunition and said his aide had been barred from the military’s operational headquarters.

*^{Ukrainian service members are seen next to armored vehicles near the frontline town of Bakhmut, in the Donetsk region, on February 25, 2023. (Image Credit: Reuters/Yan Dobronosov)}*

The Wagner group has sent thousands of its private military personnel to fight in Bakhmut. Head of the Wagner group, Yevgeny Prigozhin issued a letter on March 6, 2023, to the Russian commander of the Ukraine campaign asking for more ammunition. He later issued a statement that he has been denied access to the operational headquarters, indicating a rift between the Wagner group and Russian military leaders.

Ukraine’s largest supplier of arms and ammunition, the United States has also been observing the developing situation in Bakhmut. The U.S. said that even if the city of Bakhmut falls to Russian offense, it would not necessarily provide Moscow the momentum that it seeks to continue the war.

While speaking to the media during his trip to the Middle East, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said he would not predict when or if Ukrainian troops would leave the city, but that its fall “won’t necessarily mean that the Russians have changed the tide of this fight”. Austin said, “I think it is more of a symbolic value than it is strategic and operational value.” Moscow, however, sees capturing Bakhmut city as a major step towards seizing the eastern Donbas region of Ukraine.