The fall of Bakhmut would mark the most significant victory for Russian forces in Ukraine since they seized the nearby cities of Sierverodonetsk and Lysychansk in June
Russia claimed to be in control of large parts of Bakhmut on Sunday, as Ukrainian troops clung to increasingly precarious positions in the shattered city.
Ukraine’s general staff said on Sunday that Bakhmut was under assault from three directions. If Ukrainian troops are forced to retreat from the city, they are expected to fall back to a new defensive line just a few kilometres to the west. Capturing Bakhmut – even at the reported cost of tens of thousands of casualties – would boost a flagging Russian campaign to capture the southeastern Donbas region, which is seen as a key war aim of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
A senior Ukrainian security source appeared to acknowledge that the fall of Bakhmut was close to inevitable. “Not yet,” he replied when asked if the fight for the city was over during an exchange of WhatsApp messages with The Globe and Mail. Alexander Kots, a state media journalist embedded with Russian troops near Bakhmut – which Russia calls by its Soviet name “Artyemovsk” – reported on his Telegram channel that Russian forces, including the Wagner mercenary group, were in control of about 40 per cent of the city on Sunday. He said Russian forces were closing a ring around the thousands of Ukrainian troops still defending the centre of the city.
The ISW added that Russian troops “have not yet forced Ukrainian forces to withdraw and will not likely be able to encircle the city soon.” On Sunday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky praised the Ukrainian soldiers resisting the Russian attack. “Today I would like to pay special tribute to the bravery, strength and invincibility of the warriors fighting in Donbas. It is one of the toughest battles. Painful and challenging,” he said in a video address.
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