2023-05-22 06:48:27
The Ukrainian army continues to control small areas inside the city of Bakhmut and its environs, as part of its efforts to encircle the city and expand the fighting around it, in conjunction with Russia declaring victory in the battles that have been going on for months, according to statements by Ukrainian officials and military.
While Moscow is promoting its victory in the battle of Bakhmut, which has been going on for months, Ukraine insists that the eastern city has not yet fallen, and sees in the recent developments a favorable “opportunity” to take the initiative and overturn the balance from the outskirts of the city.
And while Russia’s declaration of victory in the eastern city indicates the imminent end of the violent fighting between its forces and the Ukrainian side, a report by the newspaper “The New York TimesThe developments of the next stage “remain unclear at all.”
After Moscow congratulated its forces and the private military group, Wagner, on seizing the city, Ukraine said, on Sunday, that its forces were still advancing on the outskirts of Bakhmut, with the aim of encircling it, according to Archyde.com.
newspaper reportedWashington PostAccording to several military personnel involved in the defense of the last strongholds that Russian forces continue to fight to control, Kiev still holds parts of the city.
Russia’s control of the city following regarding a year of bloody battles would represent a “strong symbolic success for Moscow,” as Bakhmut is the first Ukrainian city it has controlled since Lyzyshank, last summer, while the fall of the city will be a “setback” for Kiev, which wasted war efforts. Great at trying to keep it, according to the New York Times.
While military analysts highlightedCNN“The symbolic value of Bakhmut outweighs its strategic importance. The Russian side believes that seizing the city will be a starting point for incursions into the Donbass region, which it says it annexed from Ukraine.”
In this aspect, the New York Times report highlights that controlling the city will not necessarily help Moscow achieve its goal of conquering the entire Donbass region, explaining that the Ukrainian forces have strained their Russian counterparts and penetrated their defenses in some areas north and south of the city.
Last week, Ukrainian forces made their fastest gains in six months in the northern and southern suburbs of Bakhmut, and Russia acknowledged that its forces had suffered some defeats, according to Archyde.com.
Oleksandr Sersky, Ukraine’s eastern military commander who made a surprise visit to the front lines on Sunday, acknowledged that Ukraine controlled “only a small part” of Bakhmut, but said the new aim was to encircle the city “tactically”.
Zelinsky compared the destruction of Bakhmut to the nuclear attack launched by the United States on Hiroshima, Japan, in World War II.
“I will say it bluntly: The images of destruction in Hiroshima remind me of Bakhmut and other similar settlements,” he told reporters while attending the G7 summit in Hiroshima on Sunday. Nothing was left alive, all the buildings collapsed.”
Now, following Russia seems to have taken over the city, the New York Times highlights that Moscow will seek to preserve its great gain, but it indicates, on the other hand, that Ukraine plans to make this task difficult by bombing the Russian forces stationed inside the city, according to Ukrainian officials.
In the same context, military analysts said that if Moscow continues to send reinforcements to defend the city, this may weaken its ability to repel a broader counterattack, which Ukraine says it is regarding to launch.
In this regard, a British intelligence assessment revealed, on Saturday, that Moscow had redeployed several battalions to reinforce its forces in Bakhmut, describing the new supplies as a “remarkable commitment” to the Russian combat forces to protect the city.
The Washington Post pointed out that accounts of Ukrainian success outside Bakhmut contradict news of setbacks inside the city, following Ukrainian progress was reported in its neighboring regions, a move that Ukrainian officials described as a “strategy”.
Referring to the gains made by her country’s forces in the areas of Bakhmut, the Ukrainian Deputy Defense Minister, Hana Malyar, wrote on Telegram, Sunday, that such progress makes “it is very difficult for the enemy to stay in Bakhmut.”
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