The Government of Ukraine today confirmed a two-kilometer advance in the area of the front line in Bakhmut, after Ukrainian and Russian military sources have released various information to that effect in recent days.
“Our fighters advanced two kilometers in the Bakhmut area”, said the Ukrainian Deputy Defense Minister, Hanna Malyar, in a message published on the Telegram social network quoted by the Spanish agency EFE.
According to Malyar, “the enemy failed to carry out their plans” and “suffered huge casualties”.
The Ukrainian deputy minister said Kiev forces “did not lose a single position in Bakhmut this week”.
The battle for Bakhmut, a devastated city controlled about 80 percent by Russian forces, is the longest and deadliest since the Russian invasion began on February 24, 2022.
The city of the Donetsk region (east) had about 70,000 inhabitants before the war.
Malyar’s remarks come after another senior Ukrainian military official said on Wednesday that Russian forces had pulled back from some areas near Bakhmut following counter-attacks by Kiev forces.
Russia denied, on Thursday night, any retreat of its defenses by the action of the Ukrainian forces.
Widespread statements about “advances in the defenses that allegedly took place in various parts of the contact line do not correspond to reality”, said the Russian Ministry of Defense in a statement quoted by the French agency AFP.
The ministry did not mention reports of a Russian withdrawal near Bakhmut, saying only that “assault detachments continue to liberate the western part” of the city, where the last pockets of Ukrainian resistance are located.
The head of the Russian paramilitary group Wagner, Yevgeny Prigojin, which is leading the ground attack on Bakhmut, recently complained of a lack of ammunition and threatened to withdraw if he does not receive more support from Moscow.
Prigojin’s criticisms have contributed to raising doubts about the potential of Russian forces in terms of supplying ammunition and their ability to overcome Ukraine’s defensive barriers.
The US-based Institute for the Study of War (ISW) said today in its daily analysis of the conflict that Kiev “probably broke through some Russian lines in counter-attacks near Bakhmut”.
The Ukrainian deputy defense minister also accused Russia of providing “false information” about the situation of Ukrainian troops to justify the real situation, according to the Spanish agency Europa Press.
She further noted that during the week, information about the battle for the city continued to be the main theme in Russian social media and social media.
“The analysis of the messages shows that this city is of great importance to the enemy. It’s almost sacred,” said Malyar, quoted by the Ukrainian news agency Ukrinform.
Information about the course of the war released by the two parties cannot immediately be independently verified.
