KYIV: Russian forces on Tuesday (Feb 28) pressed forward their weeks-long drive to encircle and capture the eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut where the commander of Ukraine’s ground forces described the situation as “extremely tense”.
Capturing Bakhmut, scene of some of the war’s bloodiest battles, would be Russia’s first major prize in more than six months and open the way for taking the last remaining urban centres in the Donetsk region, one of four Moscow claims to have annexed in its “special military operation” in Ukraine.
Russian President Vladimir Putin instructed the FSB security service on Tuesday to bolster security in the four regions – currently only partially controlled by his forces – and also to counter what he described as growing espionage and sabotage operations against Russia by Ukraine and the West.
He was speaking after a Russian regional governor said a drone had crashed near a natural gas distribution station on Tuesday in an apparent failed attack near the town of Kolomna, just 110km southeast of Moscow.
Ukraine does not publicly claim responsibility for attacks inside Russia. If it was behind the Kolomna incident, it would be its closest attempted drone strike to the Russian capital since Russia invaded Ukraine just over a year ago.
Earlier, Russia’s defence ministry also accused Ukraine of launching two attempted drone attacks against two southern Russian regions overnight but said they caused no damage.
“CITY IS ON FIRE”
Around Bakhmut, Russian troops, including mercenary fighters from the Wagner Group, are trying to cut the Ukrainian defenders’ supply lines and force them to surrender or withdraw.
“Despite significant losses, the enemy threw in the most prepared assault units of Wagner, who are trying to break through the defences of our troops and surround the city,” Ukraine’s Colonel General Oleksandr Syrskyi said in a statement.
An unnamed soldier from Ukraine’s 93rd Separate Mechanised Brigade, speaking on the Telegram messaging app as explosions boomed in the background, struck a defiant note: “Feb 28, the town of Bakhmut. The city is on fire, the enemy is pressing. Everything will be Ukraine …”
Russia’s state-run RIA news agency released a video clip which it said showed Russian Su-25 fighter jets roaring over Bakhmut. “We are glad they are ours,” says a man in the clip identified as a Wagner fighter, adding the jets helped them “psychologically”.
Ukraine’s military said Russia was shelling settlements around Bakhmut, which had a pre-war population of around 70,000 but now lies in ruins after months of intense trench warfare.
“Over the past day, our soldiers repelled more than 60 enemy attacks,” the military said early on Tuesday, including on the villages of Yadhidne and Berkhivka just north of Bakhmut.
A Reuters reporter who visited the area on Monday said he saw no sign of Ukrainian forces withdrawing and that reinforcements were arriving despite constant Russian shelling.
Source: CNA
