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LAST UPDATE | 6 Mar 2023
UKRAINE’S PRESIDENT VOLODYMYR Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said he instructed the army to find forces to bolster the defence of the embattled eastern city of Bakhmut that has become a symbolic prize in the war with Russia.
“I told the Chief of Staff to find the appropriate forces to help the guys in Bakhmut. There is no part of Ukraine about which one can say that it can be abandoned,” Zelenskyy said in his evening address to the nation.
The eastern Ukrainian city has been badly destroyed during the longest and bloodiest battle since Russia’s more than year-long invasion.
Kyiv says the fighting is becoming increasingly difficult and analysts say its forces may have initiated a strategic retreat.
Zelenskyy met with top commanders today and his office said they favoured “continuing the defensive operation and further strengthening our positions in Bakhmut”.
Neither side has said how many troops they have lost in the battle, with observers saying both Moscow and Kyiv are trying to exhaust each other.
Outside Bakhmut, some Ukrainian soldiers had lost hope that Kyiv would hold the city and looked set to retreat.
Near the town of Chasiv Yar, 10 kilometres west of Bakhmut, one soldier said he came to repair his tank after a month of fighting.
“Bakhmut will fall,” he told AFP from the vehicle, his face marked by fatigue.
“We are almost encircled. The units are progressively retreating in small groups.”
He said the only path out of Bakhmut was over dirt roads that lead to Chasiv Yar. If tanks get bogged down there, he said, they could become a target for artillery fire.
The US-based Institute for the Study of War has said Ukrainian forces may have initiated a strategic retreat from the city.
“Ukrainian forces are likely conducting a limited tactical withdrawal in Bakhmut, although it is still too early to assess Ukrainian intentions concerning a complete withdrawal from the city,” it said in a recent analytical note.
The Ukrainian army said yesterday that its troops had fought off “more than 130″ Russian attacks in a single day around Bakhmut and said Moscow’s forces were trying to encircle the city.
Some 4,500 civilians remain in Bakhmut, Ukrainian officials have said.
In Chasiv Yar, an elderly woman named Antonina said she was scared but determined to stay in the village where she was born.
The 82-year-old said she survives on humanitarian aid and vegetables from her garden.
She said strikes were more intense at the end of last week.
Russia has appeared determined to take Bakhmut at all costs, despite analysts saying the city has little strategic value.
But there were signs that its forces too were exhausted and struggling.
As the fight rages, the head of Russia’s mercenary group Wagner that is spearheading the Bakhmut battle has complained his forces there lack ammunition.
Yevgeny Prigozhin alleged last night that Russian reservists meant to deploy to Bakhmut had been diverted and that ammunition promised by the military was days late in arriving.
“We are trying to understand what the reasons are – the usual bureaucracy or betrayal,” Prigozhin said on social media.
Prigozhin, a Kremlin-linked businessman, has seen his influence balloon since Moscow’s offensive and has regularly criticised the Russian army.
Ukraine also faced new air attacks, with the air force saying that it had shot down 13 explosive drones launched from southern Russia overnight.
The air force said on Telegram that Russian forces had launched 15 Iran-made Shahed drones, 13 of which Ukrainian forces shot down.
South of Bakhmut, Russia’s Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu visited Mariupol, the port city that Moscow captured after a long siege last Spring.
Shoigu is one of the highest-ranking Russian officials to visit east Ukraine. He toured the destroyed city to oversee reconstruction efforts.
Mariupol, on the Azov Sea, fell to the Russian army last May and has since been largely cut off from outside scrutiny.
In Moscow, Russia’s FSB security service claimed it had thwarted an attempt to assassinate a controversial pro-Kremlin tycoon, Konstantin Malofeyev.
The FSB blamed a Russian-founded sabotage group that last week penetrated the country’s borders from Ukraine.
It alleged that assassination was an “act of terror” that resembled that of the killing last August of Darya Dugina, the daughter of a far-right thinker and Kremlin supporter.
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Thank you Ukraine for protecting our freedom. Slava Ukrainia!
@Thomas Meaney: how are they protecting Irish freedom ..?
@Ciaran: By stopping Russia.
@Steve O’Hara-Smith: Russia are at war with Ukraine , not Ireland. Our freedom is just fine thanks.
@Ciaran: That’s what the French thought in 1938.
@Steve O’Hara-Smith: You know that makes no sense,I want you Ukraine to win but at least make sense.
@Steve O’Hara-Smith: France were the ones who declared war on Germany; not the other way round.
@Steve O’Hara-Smith: spot on Steve. Democracy in Europe is at stake here. Russia has decided to invade a democratic sovereign country and this is a fundamental threat to all of us. All people talking about appeasement or not being their war should really look at what happened in 1938/1939 and should google Chamberlain or the Sudeten problem for a start.
@ForrestG45: if you really believe this why don’t you volunteer to go to Bakmut?? Why allow the Ukrainians to die? Same with the UK, US and Nato countries. Its ok to send weapons, any amount and allow 150k Ukrainian men to die and another 250k maimed from battle. The ones not physically injured will live out the rest of their lives with PTSD!!! All the brave countries who send guns and bombs but won’t send their soldiers to the front lines. Why? if its so important to save democracy???
@Diarmuid O’Braonáin: so youre in favour of escalating the conflict by NATO directly intervening ?
@Diarmuid O’Braonáin: a Russian apologist worried about Ukrainian suffering, that’s an interesting one. NATO did not kill all these people from Ukraine and Russia. Your idol and his regime did by invading a democratic and sovereign country.
@Rian Lynch: the US has given Ukraine 100 billion dollars for guns, tanks and bombs. In total Ukraine has received 150 billion dollars. Most of it is debt that will have to be paid back. NATO has been in this war from the beginning. Its been arming them and training soldiers since 2014.
I know many Ukrainians from before the war. Now I think how many are dead. If they aren’t already dead then the longer it goes on the more likely it is. Ukraine as a country is ruined. There are 8 million refugees and many will never go home. The whole country is wrecked. It would cost trillions to put it back together and those pushing the war won’t pay to rebuild it.
@ForrestG45: why don’t you go and fight for such an important cause. Lay down you life like you are so willing to cheer on Ukrainian conscripts as the walk to the trenches…
@Diarmuid O’Braonáin: all because of Russia
@Diarmuid O’Braonáin: whats your point? you were just saying NATO needs boots in the ground and now youre saying ukraine will have debt because if the war. of course they will! theyre fighting a war!!! whats your point exactly?
@Rian Lynch: you really need me to spell it out for you. There could be 150k Ukrainian soldiers dead. 50k civilians dead. 250k soldiers injured. The age limit to who can be conscripted into the army is 16 to 65. How many Ukrainians need to die before this all ends. There are US generals on TV saying the Ukrainians are chewing up the Russians. That they are literally will to keep arming till the last Ukrainian soldier is dead. The US or NATO doesn’t care because it isn’t their sons that are dying. The whole world cheers these soldiers on walking to their graves. Ukraine cannot defeat Russia and are going to be destroyed and everyone seems ok with that. All the young men dead and for what??? All these young men have mothers wives girlfriends or kids…. there are no winners in all this. Just loosers. Rich men sending poor men to fight their wars. I bet you any son of a wealthy Ukrainian didn’t pick up a gun… probably partying in Switzerland…
@Diarmuid O’Braonáin: okay so you want the ukranians to surrender? i mean you havent mentioned Russian losses or the fact that russian politicians started the war. theres an excellent quote “if Russia stops fighting the war ends. if ukraine stops fighting ukraine ends”. thats what the ukranians are fighting for. the ukranians believe its worth fighting for. of course the russians also believe ending ukraine is worth fighting for.
@Rian Lynch: you said “thats what the ukranians are fighting for. the ukranians believe its worth fighting for”
Thats what you believe, that’s what the media is telling you. There’s no one volunteering for the Ukrainian army any more they are all conscripts. I spoke to a Ukrainian here last week who bought a plane ticket for his friend who’s trying to leave cause he doesn’t want to die in Bakmut. He had to cancel the ticket as no man is allowed leave the country. Tell me what happens a Ukrainian soldier that doesn’t want to fight anymore. There are 16 year old kids being drafted…. if you want the Russians defeated so badly why don’t you go over and help them in the trenches and on the front lines. You won’t go cause youd be afraid of dying and want to live your life. There are Ukrainians men who want the same. They don’t want to die in a war.
@Diarmuid O’Braonáin: if you want the ukranians to surrender so badly why dont you go to Bahkmut and lead them in deserting i mean as you describe theyre obviously just waiting for someone to show them the way .
@Diarmuid O’Braonáin: Still posting unfounded nonsense.
@Rian Lynch: i get the impression your a keyboard warrior. That if by chance you were on the front lines when Russian shells start falling all round. You would curl up into a ball and cry for your mammy…
You make it sound like you care about Ukraine but you don’t. And you know well what happens deserters in the army. They don’t get to go home EVER…
Terrible situation but let’s take hope in that the supposed mighty Russian army can’t take a city Little bigger than Limerick. Victory to Ukraine
Looks like Russia is leaving them a way out of the city but they are refusing to take it
@Brian Boru: why would the Russians do that?
@Brian Boru: why would they leave their homeland. Its their duty to defend it.
@Allora: Ukraine is giving the Russians the opportunity to leave Ukraine. Why are they not taking it?
@Brian Boru: let me rephrase that for you… looks like Russian army can’t yet close the encirclement due to being piss poorly led and motivated and facing superior Ukrainian fighters.
@Rian Lynch: they aren’t its only keeps Brian’s head feeling good about his hero Putin .
@Brian Boru: No, looks like Ukraine is using the city as a meat grinder for incompetent Russian soldiers.
@Brian Boru: Yeah, just like the humanitarian corridors in other cities that Russia left open then proceeded to shell the hell out of.
Only a fool would trust them
Russian soldiers are complaining about a lack of ammo. Hopefully Ukraine can push them back and the Russian line falls.
13 drones would have cost a pretty penny?
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