Kiev: fighting continues in Bakhmut
Russian forces continue to conduct offensive operations on the Bakhmut front and the fighting for the disputed city continues: the General Staff of the Ukrainian army said this morning, as reported by Ukrainska Pravda. «The enemy continues to concentrate its main efforts on conducting offensive actions on the Kupiansk, Lyman, Bakhmut, Avdiivka and Mariinka fronts. Overall, 53 clashes took place on these fronts in one day; the cities of Bakhmut and Marinka remain the epicenter of hostilities,” the report reads.
Later, the spokesman of the Eastern Group of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Serhiy Cherevaty, told Suspilne that the country’s defense forces continue to hold positions in the southwestern part of Bakhmut fighting against the Russians.
“The president is right: the city has been essentially destroyed from the face of the earth. The enemy destroys it daily with massive air and artillery attacks, and our units report that the situation is extremely difficult. Our military maintains fortifications and several premises in the southwestern part of the city. There is heavy fighting going on,” he noted.
According to Cherevaty, Moscow attaches too much symbolic importance to Bakhmut. «Russia draws attention to this Bakhmut as if they had taken the Dnipro. In fact, they didn’t take it to the end. The city is destroyed, it does not bring them any military or political advantage. They have not taken the downtown district in 9 months, we are trying to press on the flanks, not to give them peace and, if possible, to fight back,” added the spokesman.