Advertisement

We need your help now

Support from readers like you keeps The Journal open.

You are visiting us because we have something you value. Independent, unbiased news that tells the truth. Advertising revenue goes some way to support our mission, but this year it has not been enough.

If you've seen value in our reporting, please contribute what you can, so we can continue to produce accurate and meaningful journalism. For everyone who needs it.

A Ukrainian tank drives towards frontline positions near Bakhmut on Saturday, 4 March.

Russian advance may encounter heavy losses as Ukrainian snipers create 'killing zone’

UK military officials said Russian forces have made progress in the frontline hotspot of Bakhmut.bakhmut thejournal.

RUSSIAN FORCES HAVE made progress in the frontline hotspot of Bakhmut but their attack will be hard to sustain without further harsh losses, according to UK military officials.

Bakhmut is a key target of Moscow’s campaign in eastern Ukraine, which has resulted in staggering casualties.

The Kremlin-controlled paramilitary Wagner Group has captured most of eastern Bakhmut, which a river flowing through the city centre now marking the frontline, Britain’s Ministry of Defence said.

But, its assessment added, it will be “highly challenging” for Wagner forces to push ahead because Ukraine has destroyed key bridges over the river – while Ukrainian sniper fire from fortified buildings further west has made the thin strip of open group in the middle a “killing zone”.

At the same time, Ukrainian troops and supply lines in the mining city remain vulnerable to “continued Russian attempts to outflank the defenders from the north and south” as Russian forces try to close in on them in a pincer movement, the ministry said.

Meanwhile, Russian military bloggers and other pro-Kremlin Telegram accounts have  claimed that Russian forces have entered a metal processing factory in north-west Bakhmut.

A Washington-based think tank late last night also referenced geolocated footage showing Russian forces within 800 metres of the heavily built up and fortified Azom complex.

The Institute for the Study of War said Moscow’s apparent focus on capturing the factory, rather than opting for a “wider encirclement of western Bakhmut” by attempting to take nearby villages, is likely to bring a further wave of Russian casualties.

Hold the city

Ukraine’s ground forces today signalled their intention to hold the city, reporting on Facebook that their top officer continues to oversee “the most important sectors of the front” and “take the necessary measures” to deny Moscow a long-awaited battlefield victory.

Colonel General Oleksandr Syrskyi has made several visits to the Bakhmut and other eastern frontline hotspots over the past month.

Across Ukraine, repair work continued today after a massive Russian missile and drone strike two days earlier which killed six people and left hundreds of thousands without heat or electricity.

Ukraine’s state grid operator said power supply issues persist across four regions following the barrage, which saw 80 Russian missiles and a smaller number of exploding drones hit residential buildings and critical infrastructure across the country.

Close
17 Comments
This is YOUR comments community. Stay civil, stay constructive, stay on topic. Please familiarise yourself with our comments policy here before taking part.
Leave a Comment
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Paddy Ryan
    Favourite Paddy Ryan
    Report
    Mar 11th 2023, 4:07 PM

    Such a senseless war, even if Russia eventually take this city their are many many more cities to come in Ukraine. Pointless death and destruction all because of one man’s madness.

    477
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute SquideyeMagpie
    Favourite SquideyeMagpie
    Report
    Mar 11th 2023, 4:21 PM

    Wagner are 21st century pirates and adventurers. All of Russian industry is already stolen or paying protection so these gangsters needed new turf. Thats what alot of this war is about. Pregozin is only after booty, military goals are secondary. I predict he’ll meet his demise in a bank rumoured to hold bullion/expensive wine cellar/rare art trove that the Ukrainians will have rigged to send him to Hell.

    172
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Ordinary Bloke
    Favourite Ordinary Bloke
    Report
    Mar 11th 2023, 8:59 PM

    The usual nicely packaged analysis from the good old ‘Institute for the Study of War’ invariably appear in PA articles like this. It’s no wonder journalists would want to take the easy way out and include their comments. Remember though that ISW ‘think tank’ is a defense industry funded notorious neoconservative mouthpiece that’s run by Victoria Nuland’s (the state department official who oversaw the coup in 2014) brother-in-law.

    So you throw the ISW analysis in along with with whatever Zelensky’s propaganda team dreamed up before they went to bed last night, and you’ve probably got a good unbiased update of what’s happening on the ground over there.

    75
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute SquideyeMagpie
    Favourite SquideyeMagpie
    Report
    Mar 11th 2023, 9:36 PM

    @Ordinary Bloke: They have been largely accurate so far. Thats the difference between the west and the Russians. Honest reporting. Last time I checked the Russian aren’t in Kiev or do you know something the rest of the world dosent?

    69
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Steve Salmon
    Favourite Steve Salmon
    Report
    Mar 11th 2023, 11:37 PM

    @SquideyeMagpie: The president and founder of the Institute for the Study of War is Kimberly Kagan, a military historian who is married to Frederick Kagan, who is also a military historian and does work for ISW. Frederick is a well-known neoconservative, though not as well-known as his brother Robert. In the 1990s, Robert Kagan, along with Bill Kristol (who is on ISW’s board), founded the Project for a New American Century, which in the view of some observers played an important role in convincing George W. Bush to invade Iraq. Robert Kagan’s wife is…… Victoria Nuland,

    This you Impartial news source folks.

    47
    See 6 more replies ▾
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute SquideyeMagpie
    Favourite SquideyeMagpie
    Report
    Mar 12th 2023, 1:12 AM

    @Steve Salmon: thats why it is important to corroborate information from a ranof source. Official Russian sources are embarrassing in thier propaganda. More accurate are the telegram channels of Russian troops and bloggers. Fog of war and all that, but lets just see how it goes over the next few months.

    13
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Rian Lynch
    Favourite Rian Lynch
    Report
    Mar 12th 2023, 8:04 AM

    @Ordinary Bloke: the irony is that Thursday you were pushing russian propaganda youtube channels and trying to present them as unbiased.

    11
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Eugene Smyth
    Favourite Eugene Smyth
    Report
    Mar 12th 2023, 9:34 AM

    @Ordinary Bloke: it’s good to see someone doing their own research. Instead of regurgatating the msm propaganda .

    9
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Pat Ryan
    Favourite Pat Ryan
    Report
    Mar 12th 2023, 10:30 AM

    @Eugene Smyth: only problem with that analogy is he’s trying to convince us west propaganda bad , Russia propaganda good and reliable when in fact anyone with half a brain knows the truth is somewhere in the middle .

    8
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Eugene Smyth
    Favourite Eugene Smyth
    Report
    Mar 12th 2023, 11:52 AM

    @Pat Ryan: is it not best to get two sides of the story rather than one? And then make your own mind up. Msm gives one narrative . And tries to suppress the counter narrative. Because they think people are too stupid to make up their own mind. Is ithis democratic? Is this free speech?

    8
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Eugene Smyth
    Favourite Eugene Smyth
    Report
    Mar 12th 2023, 11:57 AM

    @Pat Ryan: I agree. Both bad. But there should always be debate. Not just one narrative. Thats free speech and democracy. I don’t agree with censorship. We are not fools. We can make up our own minds

    2
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Ní neart go cur le chéile.
    Favourite Ní neart go cur le chéile.
    Report
    Mar 11th 2023, 4:14 PM

    First batch of 44 T-80UD tank will be delivered from Pakistan, US paid for them. Pakistan have 320 Ukraine made T-80UD and tons of Soviet weapons, they are outdated weapons, same as when the war beginning, all EU and NATO countries donated Soviet weapons and ammo first. Pakistan is in financial crisis at moment, so if US pays with high prices for them, they will sell. Where are the German Leopard 1 and American M1 Abrams? Interesting fact: destroying useless/outdated weapons and ammo are really expensive, the labor, recycling, pollution, transport, place… but dumping them in the someone else war is juat cheap, cost nothing

    74
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Rian Lynch
    Favourite Rian Lynch
    Report
    Mar 11th 2023, 4:20 PM

    @Ní neart go cur le chéile.: so russia stsrted a war to get rid of their old stockpiles ?

    81
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Tomás Barrett
    Favourite Tomás Barrett
    Report
    Mar 11th 2023, 4:58 PM

    @Ní neart go cur le chéile.: Western tanks are predicted to hit the battlefield in early April.

    62
    See 3 more replies ▾
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Pat Barry
    Favourite Pat Barry
    Report
    Mar 11th 2023, 5:39 PM

    @Tomás Barrett: State of the art Leopard 2s.

    27
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Gerry Dornan
    Favourite Gerry Dornan
    Report
    Mar 11th 2023, 8:21 PM

    @Pat Barry:
    How many??

    4
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Pat Barry
    Favourite Pat Barry
    Report
    Mar 11th 2023, 8:32 PM

    @Gerry Dornan: 250.

    17
Submit a report
Please help us understand how this comment violates our community guidelines.
Thank you for the feedback
Your feedback has been sent to our team for review.

Leave a commentcancel

 
JournalTv
News in 60 seconds