NATO allies weigh more arms for Ukraine as Russian artillery batters
Bakhmut
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[February 14, 2023]
By Pavel Polityuk
KYIV (Reuters) -Russian forces bombarded Ukrainian troops and towns
along front lines in the eastern Donetsk region on Tuesday in what
appeared to be early salvoes of a new offensive, as Western allies met
in Brussels to discuss sending more arms for the Kyiv government.
Bakhmut, a city in Donetsk province and a principal target for Russian
President Vladimir Putin's invading army, was in a precarious position.
"There is not a single square metre in Bakhmut that is safe or that is
not in range of enemy fire or drones," regional governor Pavlo Kyrylenko
told Ukraine's national broadcaster.
He said Russian artillery was hitting targets all along the front lines
in Donetsk, which along with Luhansk province makes up the Donbas,
Ukraine's industrial heartland and a major objective for the Russians.
With the first anniversary of Russia's invasion nearing, the Kremlin has
intensified operations across a broad swathe of southern and eastern
Ukraine and a big new offensive has been widely anticipated.
Before a meeting of NATO defence ministers in Brussels, the alliance's
Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said Western countries needed to
boost ammunition supplies to Kyiv.
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"We see no signs that President Putin is preparing for peace. What we
see is the opposite, he is preparing for more war, for new offensives
and new attacks," he told reporters.
Ukraine has also appealed to West for fighter jets.
Ukraine's military said on Tuesday its forces had repelled attacks in
five settlements in Luhansk and six in Donetsk, including around Bakhmut,
over the past 24 hours.
They had also beaten back an attack on a town in the Kharkiv region,
which borders Russia in northeast Ukraine.
Britain said on Tuesday mercenaries from the Wagner group, who have
spearheaded the Russian assault on Bakhmut, had made small gains in the
northern outskirts in the past three days but an advance to the south
seemed to have made little progress.
A regional road and rail transport and logistics hub, Bakhmut has
endured months of shelling and many districts are in ruins. Only about
5,000 civilians are left there out of a pre-war population of about
70,000, Governor Kyrylenko said. Troops have fortified positions in
anticipation of street fighting.
Authorities hope to reduce the number of people there to a minimum and
will try to evacuate the wounded, he said.
Bakhmut's capture would provide a stepping stone for Russia to advance
on two bigger cities in Donetsk - Kramatorsk and Sloviansk - and give
Moscow new momentum after months of setbacks following its invasion last
Feb. 24.
The acting head of the Russian-installed administration in Donetsk,
Denis Pushilin, said Ukrainian troops were entrenched in Bakhmut but
Russian forces were making headway.
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NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg
speaks at a NATO defence ministers meeting at the Alliance's
headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, February 14, 2023.
REUTERS/Johanna Geron
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"We understand very well that there is no prospect that the enemy
will just give up there and leave their positions without a fight,"
Pushilin said on Russia's state-run Channel 1.
"We don't see that yet, and our guys really have to do the
impossible at times in order to dislodge the enemy from their
entrenched positions, but we see progress nevertheless."
Russia now controls swathes of the southern regions of Kherson and
Zaporizhzhia, including its nuclear plant, nearly all of Luhansk and
over half of Donetsk, including the regional capital. Despite not
fully controlling any of the four regions, Moscow claims to have
annexed them all.
Ukrainian officials also said the Russians had suffered big losses
around Vuhledar, a town about 150 km (90 miles) southwest of
Bakhmut, including tanks and armoured vehicles as well as personnel.
Reuters was not able to independently verify battlefield reports.
USING UP SHELLS
With Ukraine desperate for more weapons, including fighter jets and
long-range missiles, ministers from several NATO countries and other
allies of Kyiv in the so-called Ramstein group were meeting in
Brussels to discuss more military aid.
Later in the day, NATO defence ministers were to talk.
Stoltenberg said that beyond discussions on new weapons for Kyiv,
already-delivered arms needed to be kept working. He said he
expected the issue of aircraft to be addressed but that Ukraine
needed support on the ground now.
Ukraine is using shells faster than the West can make them.
Germany announced it has signed contracts with arms maker
Rheinmetall to restart ammunition production for Gepard
anti-aircraft guns it has delivered to Kyiv. U.S. Secretary of
Defense Lloyd Austin reaffirmed that Washington and NATO were with
Ukraine for the long haul.
"That shared resolve will sustain Ukraine's momentum in the weeks
ahead," Austin said in Brussels. "The Kremlin is still betting that
it can wait us out."
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The Kremlin said NATO was demonstrating its hostility towards
Russia every day and was becoming more and more involved in the
conflict.
Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022, in what it calls a
"special military operation" to "denazify" the country and protect
Russian speakers. Western leaders say it was nothing more than a
land grab.
(Reporting by Caleb Davis, Sabine Siebold, Pavel Polityuk, Ron
Popeski, Lydia Kelly and Aleksandar Vasovic; writing by Angus
MacSwan; editing by Robert Birsel, Andrew Cawthorne and Mark
Heinrich)
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