Kyiv: We stand firm
Kremlin vassal Pushilin parades in Bakhmut
4/10/2023 6:36 p.m
The Wagner mercenaries boasted about taking Bachmut days ago, but Moscow is silent on the matter. Now the Donetsk separatist leader Puschilin is venturing into the center of the ruined city. The general staff reports from Kiev that the fighting is continuing.
The Russian-appointed chief of the occupied Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine says he has visited the center of the heavily contested city of Bakhmut. Denis Puschilin published a corresponding video in the online service Telegram, which is apparently intended to suggest significant Russian territory gains. The city was “liberated” by fighters from the Russian mercenary group Wagner, Puschilin reports in the video, which apparently shows him in a central square in Bakhmut. Destroyed buildings and ruins can be seen in the background, and artillery fire can be heard.
According to the General Staff in Kiev, the Ukrainian armed forces have fended off around 60 Russian attacks since Easter Sunday. The main focus of the fighting is still in Bakhmut, the Ukrainian general staff said.
The commander of Ukraine’s forces in the east, General Olexander Syrskyj, accused Russia of resorting to “scorched earth tactics” there, as it had previously done in Syria. “Buildings and positions are being destroyed with airstrikes and artillery fire. The situation is difficult, but under control,” said Syrskyj in the morning. The Ukrainian troops would “heroically” withstand the Russian offensive at Bakhmut. They managed to wear out the units of the Russian private army Wagner, so the enemy was now forced to use special troops from the regular Russian armed forces. Burned-out house skeletons and piles of rubble from collapsed buildings could be seen in photos and videos.
Wagner boss announces formal receipt
Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin, on the other hand, recently said that his units were making progress in the city and had formally taken it. He spoke of a weakening of the Ukrainian units due to the loss of supply routes. He did not want to comment on the support provided by regular Russian troops. However, the Russian army did not report such progress.
The Ukrainian leadership, on the other hand, had always emphasized that it would not give up the strategically important Bakhmut in order to prevent the Russian troops from breaking through further into the interior of the country. One of the aims of Russia in the war is to take over the entire Donetsk region.
The Battle of Bakhmut is the longest of the more than year-long Russian offensive in Ukraine. The city, which had a population of 70,000 before the start of the war, is largely destroyed and deserted after months of fighting. However, the city in the industrial region of Donbass has now acquired a high symbolic importance for both sides in view of the fighting that has been going on for months and has resulted in heavy losses.