The protracted, grinding battle for eastern Ukraine’s Bakhmut salt-mining town has cost Ukraine and Russia many lives. Ukraine holds the territory to the west of the now devastated and virtually abandoned Bakhmut, while Russia’s Wagner Group controls most of the eastern section, according to British intelligence, with the Bakhmutka River that runs through the town defining the front line. Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy stated more than 1,100 Russian servicemen had been killed in the Bakhmut front line combat in recent days.
“In less than a week, starting from the 6th March, we managed to kill more than 1,100 enemy forces in the Bakhmut sector alone, Russia’s permanent loss, right there, near Bakhmut,” Zelenskyy stated in his nightly video presentation. He said 1,500 Russian soldiers were too injured to fight. Russia’s defense ministry reported further military actions in eastern Donetsk, part of the industrial Donbas alongside Luhansk. The government claimed Russian forces had murdered more than 220 Ukrainian service personnel over the preceding 24 hours. “In the Donetsk direction… more than 220 Ukrainian personnel, an infantry combat vehicle, three armored fighting vehicles, seven trucks, and a D-30 artillery were destroyed during the day,” the ministry stated. Both sides have confessed to heavy losses in Bakhmut over the past few months, although the actual figure is hard to establish. Ukraine has consistently maintained it will defend Bakhmut, with top commanders stressing over the weekend that it gives them time to organize a bigger counterattack. . The fighting was fiercer near the city centre. Russia claims that taking Bakhmut will weaken Ukrainian defenses and help seize the Donbas, a crucial goal. Nonetheless, combat and heavy bombardment have continued along Ukraine’s east and south front line, including other districts of Donetsk. On Sunday, Ukrainian soldiers bombarded Donetsk four times, destroying power lines and residential areas, according to Russia-installed officials. The information was unconfirmed by reporters. Both sides have denied attacking civilians.
Tens of thousands of Ukrainian citizens and troops on both sides have died. In an unprovoked campaign of conquest, Russia has bombed Ukrainian cities and driven millions of citizens from their homes. Donetsk shelling injured 66-year-old Svetlana Boiko. She told Reporters artillery “used to fly over without ever reaching us”. It hasn’t impacted us since 2014. “2023 is like this,” Boiko added. Moscow seized the Donetsk area and three other Ukrainian regions in September, including sections controlled by Russian-backed rebels since 2014.
