Russia kept up pressure on Bakhmut over the past 24 hours as President Volodymyr Zelenskiy vowed to beef up the defense of the besieged city in the eastern Donetsk region, and the United Nations chief prepared to go to Kyiv to discuss an extension of a grain deal with Moscow.
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An air-raid alert was declared across Ukraine midmorning on March 7, but there were no reports of Russian strikes and the alarm was lifted after less than an hour.
“Over the last day, Ukrainian soldiers repelled more than 140 enemy attacks,” the General Staff of Ukraine’s Armed Forces said in its daily report, adding that Bakhmut again bore the brunt of Russia’s offensive.
Despite significant losses, the General Staff said, Russia continues to attempt to storm Bakhmut and its surroundings.
“Over the past 24 hours, the enemy has carried out 37 attacks near the village of Dubovo-Vasylivka,” it said, referring to a settlement that lies just northeast of Bakhmut.
Zelenskiy said in his nightly address on March 6 that he had discussed Bakhmut with Valeriy Zaluzhniy, the commander in chief of the armed forces, and Oleksandr Syrskiy, the commander of Ukraine’s ground forces, where “they spoke in favor of continuing the defensive operation and further strengthening our positions in Bakhmut,”according to the president’s website.
“The military command unanimously supported this position,” he said. “There were no other positions. I told the commander in chief to find the forces needed to back our boys in Bakhmut.”
Volodymyr Nazarenko, a commander of Ukrainian troops in Bakhmut, spoke in a Telegram video on March 6 about the difficult situation in and around Bakhmut, but he and other leaders vowed to continue the fight.
“The situation in Bakhmut and around it is utter hell, as it is on the entire eastern front,” Nazarenko said.
The Washington-based Institute for the Study of War said that Ukrainian defensive efforts have substantially drained Russian military resources but that Kyiv’s forces may now be conducting a “gradual fighting withdrawal” from some positions.
Ukrainian commanders, however, have pointed out that holding Bakhmut will prevent Russian forces from advancing deeper into the western part of Donetsk in the direction of Slovyansk and Kramatorsk.
Ukrainian Troops Put Up Fierce Resistance As Battle For ‘Fortress Bakhmut’ Rages On
Ukrainian troops are putting up fierce opposition as Moscow’s forces close in on the eastern city of Bakhmut.
During a Middle East visit on March 6, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin downplayed Bakhmut’s significance as more “symbolic” than anything else, while declining to suggest its eventual fall to Russian forces.
The Ukrainian military made public the identity of one of his soldiers that appears to have been executed by the Russians after falling prisoner in Bakhmut. The video of the purported execution has sparked outrage after being posted on social media, amid calls that a war crimes investigation be opened by the International Criminal Court.
Meanwhile, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres prepared to meet with Zelenskiy in Kyiv on March 8 to discuss extending a deal with Moscow that allows the export of Ukrainian grain across the Black Sea.
“The secretary-general has just arrived in Poland on his way to Ukraine,” UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said on March 7.
The current three-month deal was initially brokered by the United Nations and Turkey in July and extended again in November.
With reporting by Reuters
