NEAR BAKHMUT, Ukraine, May 18 (Reuters) – The Ukrainian army and Russia’s Wagner private army reported further Russian withdrawals around the town of Bakhmut on Thursday as Kiev advanced its biggest advance in six months before a counteroffensive. planned.
Ukrainian troops near the front line said Russia was shelling access roads to slow the Ukrainian attack, which has changed momentum after months of slow Russian advances in Europe’s deadliest ground combat since World War Two.
“Now, for the most part, as we start to advance, they are shelling all the routes to the front positions, so our armored vehicles cannot deliver more infantry, ammunition and other things,” said Petro Podaru, commander of a Ukrainian army. artillery unit.
Ukraine’s army said troops had advanced in some places by more than a mile. His forces had been on the defensive for half a year, resisting a major offensive by Moscow that made only slow gains.
“Despite the fact that our units do not have an advantage in equipment… and personnel, they have continued to advance on the flanks and have covered a distance of 150 to 1,700 meters (1.1 miles),” military spokesman Serhiy Cherevatyi said in televised comments.
Ukraine’s gains have been accompanied by a deepening public split within Russia’s forces between Wagner, who has led Bakhmut’s campaign, and the regular Russian army.
The ruined ruins of Bakhmut, described by both sides as a “meat grinder”, would be Moscow’s only prize for its massive winter offensive that failed on other parts of the front.
kyiv says it has launched local advances around Bakhmut as a prelude to a next major counteroffensive that it hopes will turn the tide against the 15-month-old Russian invasion.
Wagner’s boss, Yevgeny Prigozhin, says his forces inside Bakhmut are still advancing, poised to push Ukrainian troops out of their last foothold in the built-up area on the city’s western outskirts.
But it accuses the commanders of Russia’s regular forces of abandoning ground to the north and south of the city, raising the risk that the troops inside will be surrounded.
“Unfortunately, Russian Defense Ministry units have withdrawn up to 570 meters (1,880 feet) north of Bakhmut, exposing our flanks,” Prigozhin said in his latest voicemail on Thursday.
“I appeal to the top leadership of the Defense Ministry, publicly, because my letters are not read,” Prigozhin said, addressing Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov.
“Please don’t abandon the flanks.”
(1/4) Military personnel take part in a funeral ceremony to bury the remains of sixty Russian armed forces service members and three civilians, who died in the course of the Russia-Ukraine conflict, at a cemetery in Lugansk, Russia-controlled Ukraine, on May 18. , 2023. REUTERS/Alexander Ermochenko
The Russian Defense Ministry acknowledged some withdrawals from positions near Bakhmut over the past week, but denies Prigozhin’s claims that the flanks are crumbling or that he has withheld ammunition from Wagner.
FALLING INTO ‘THE MOUSETRAP’
Ukraine says its tactic around Bakhmut is to lure Russian forces into the city, in order to weaken Russia’s front-line defenses elsewhere ahead of Kiev’s planned counterattack.
“Wagner’s troops climbed Bakhmut like rats into a mousetrap,” Oleksander Syrskyi, commander of Ukraine’s ground forces, told troops on the Bakhmut front in a video he posted on social media this week.
“Using the active defense principle, we resorted to counteroffensive actions in some directions near Bakhmut. The enemy has more resources, but we are destroying their plans.”
With the kyiv counteroffensive looming, Russia has resumed missile and drone strikes in Ukraine this month after a nearly two-month hiatus. Waves of attacks now arrive several times a week, the most intense pace of the war.
On Thursday, air-raid sirens sounded overnight, black smoke filled the sky over kyiv and one person was reported dead in the southern city of Odessa. Ukraine saying shot down 29 of 30 incoming missiles. Moscow claimed to have hit military targets.
Russia has also been experiencing attacks and explosions both on Ukrainian territory it controls and on Russian territory near the border. Officials in Russian-occupied Crimea reported that a freight train had been derailed during the night by “interference”. kyiv never confirms any role in the incidents there.
On the diplomatic front, the leaders of the G7 group of big developed countries met in Japan, where they are expected to unveil tougher measures to shut down Russia’s chances of circumventing financial sanctions.
president of the united states joe Biden and the Japanese Fumio Kishida met for talks in Hiroshima, aiming for closer cooperation in the face of an unpredictable Russia and a rising China.
A Catholic website reported that Pope Francisco he hopes to send personal peace envoys to the presidents of Ukraine and Russia.
On Wednesday, Moscow agreed to a two-month extension of a deal that safeguards Ukrainian grain exports from Black Sea ports despite the war. Russia had threatened to pull out of the deal unless it received additional guarantees protecting its own grain and fertilizer exports.
However, a Ukrainian official said the corridor had not yet resumed, while Russia said further progress was needed. to promote your interests.
Written by Peter Graff; Edited by Mark Heinrich
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