Ukraine says it advances, repels Russia attacks at Bakhmut

Ukraine said it had repelled a day of Russian attacks in and around the ruined eastern city of Bakhmut on Thursday and made gains of a kilometer in some places while buying time for “certain planned actions.”

While Russia boosted its forces in the city, attacked the suburbs to the north and engaged in fierce fighting in the southern suburbs, Ukraine’s forces advanced 500 meters in the north and in some areas in the south by one kilometer, Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maliar said on her Telegram channel.

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“The defense of Bakhmut and its outskirts is meeting its military objectives,” she said. “As of now, we control the southwestern part of Bakhmut.”

She said that Russia had attacked Bakhmut all day having “significantly strengthened” its grouping in Bakhmut by bringing most of its reserves there.

“All the attacks were repelled by our defenders,” she added.

Kyiv has for days been hailing battlefield successes around Bakhmut that could eventually trap forces of Russia’s Wagner mercenary group inside the city. Wagner is spearheading the Russian assault on the city.

Moscow sees Bakhmut, a city of about 70,000 before Russia’s full-scale invasion nearly 15 months ago, as a stepping-stone toward capturing the rest of the eastern Donbas region.

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