Russia tries to close ring on Bakhmut as Ukrainians mount 'furious
resistance'
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[March 01, 2023]
By Yevhen Titov
NEAR CHASIV YAR, Ukraine (Reuters) -Russian forces carried out
relentless attacks on Bakhmut on Wednesday, trying to encircle the small
eastern Ukrainian city and claim their first major prize for more than
half a year after some of the bloodiest fighting of the war.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy accused Moscow of throwing waves
of men into battle in Bakhmut with no regard for their lives. The leader
of Russia's Wagner mercenary group said the Ukrainians were putting up
"furious resistance" trying to hold the city at all costs.
Russia also said it had repelled a massive drone attack on Crimea, the
peninsula its forces seized and claimed to annex in 2014. That came a
day after Moscow accused Kyiv of launching a series of drone strikes on
targets in Russia itself.
Reuters was able to reach Bakhmut from the west on Monday, proof that
the city was not yet surrounded despite Russian forces pressing from
north and south to close the last routes in.
Flames and smoke rose into the sky from blazing buildings. Constant
gunfire and explosions rang out into the sky. Ukrainian armoured
vehicles roared through the streets, while stray dogs wandered amid the
mud and debris.
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Thousands of residents remain inside the ruined city from a pre-war
population of around 70,000.
"It is frightening indeed," said a middle-aged man bundled in a coat and
woolly hat on the steps of his apartment block.
"I can hardly move my legs - they barely move - from the stress of the
situation," he said. "As long as my home is intact and I am not hurt, I
will stay here."
In the town of Chasiv Yar to the west, a grocery shop was ablaze.
"We won't give up Bakhmut. We will hold on to it until the very last," a
25-year-old army medic headed towards the front told Reuters. "Glory to
Ukraine, death to the enemies."
'CONSTANT WAVES'
The area around Bakhmut has been the one part of the front where Moscow
has made substantial gains during a winter offensive that has seen what
both sides describe as the bloodiest fighting of the war.
"Russia in general takes no account of people and sends them in constant
waves against our positions, the intensity of the fighting is only
increasing," Zelenskiy said in an overnight address, describing the
fighting in Bakhmut as "most difficult" but its defence as essential.
In an audio message on social media, Yevgeny Prigozhin, whose Wagner
private army has led Russia's offensive there, said the Ukrainian
military was throwing extra reserves into the battle, "trying to hold
the town with all their strength".
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"Tens of thousands of Ukrainian army fighters are putting up furious
resistance. The bloodiness of the battles is growing by the day," he
said.
After losing extensive territory in the second half of 2022, Russian
forces have been replenished by hundreds of thousands of reservists.
Kyiv, for its part, has stuck mainly to defence over the past three
months, hoping Russia's assault will exhaust Moscow's forces before
Ukraine launches a counter-attack with new weapons promised by the West.
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![](../images/030123PIX/news_o91.jpg)
Ukrainian service members ride BMP-2
infantry fighting vehicles, as Russia's attack on Ukraine continues,
near the frontline city of Bakhmut, Ukraine February 27, 2023.
REUTERS/Yevhen Titov
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Fighting near Bakhmut has been led by Wagner, which has recruited
tens of thousands of convicts from prisons. Its boss Prigozhin has
accused the regular Russian army brass of treason for inadequately
supplying his men.
Wagner received an apparent show of Kremlin support on Wednesday
when Russia's rubber-stamp lower house of parliament, the State Duma,
discussed extending censorship laws to include a 15-year jail
sentence for those who discredit "volunteer formations".
"This initiative will protect everyone who today is risking their
lives to ensure the security of the country and our citizens," Duma
chairman Vyacheslav Volodin wrote on social media. "The punishment
for violators will be severe."
MUD
Ukrainians and Russians traditionally view March 1 as the start of
spring. Already, frozen ground has melted at the front, bringing the
season of sucking black mud - "bezdorizhzhia" in Ukrainian, "rasputitsa"
in Russian - notorious in military history for destroying attacking
armies in the region.
Ukrainians boasted that arrival of warmer weather proved Russia had
failed to freeze them into submission with missile and drone attacks
on energy infrastructure.
"So, did you manage to freeze us? Happy first day of Ukrainian
spring!" tweeted Oleksiy Danilov, secretary of Ukraine's National
Security Council.
The war loomed over a meeting of foreign ministers from the G20
group of big economies in New Delhi, attended by Russian Foreign
Minister Sergei Lavrov as well as U.S. Secretary of State Antony
Blinken.
Host India does not want Ukraine to dominate the event, but faces
calls from Western countries for a clear stance.
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"This war has to be condemned," Josep Borrell, the European Union's
High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, told
reporters. "I hope, I am sure that India's diplomatic capacity will
be used in order to make Russia understand that this war has to
finish."
Kyiv describes the Russian invasion as an unprovoked war of
aggression to crush an independent state. Moscow blames the West for
provoking what it calls its "special military operation", and for
prolonging it by supporting Kyiv with weapons.
"We intend to firmly and openly talk about the reasons and
instigators of the current serious problems in world politics and
the global economy," the Russian Embassy in New Delhi said in a
statement ahead of the G20 meeting.
"The destructive policy of the U.S. and its allies has already put
the world on the brink of a disaster...."
(Reporting by Reuters bureauxWriting by Peter GraffEditing by Gareth
Jones)
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