Fri 03 March 2023:
Ukrainian forces clinging to the eastern city of Bakhmut have dug new trenches in an attempt to hold back Russian attackers.
Russian forces have been attacking Bakhmut in Donetsk province for months, sometimes in waves and the site has become one of the bloodiest battles of the war.
“Fighting is going on in Bakhmut round the clock … The situation is critical,” Volodymyr Nazarenko, a deputy commander in the National Guard of Ukraine, told Ukrainian NV Radio.
Russian mercenary chief says Ukraine’s Bakhmut is practically surrounded
The founder and financier of the Wagner mercenary group Yevgeny Prigozhin says his forces have all but surrounded Bakhmut, and is calling on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to order a withdrawal from the Donetsk city.
“The PMC Wagner units have almost surrounded Bakhmut, there is only one road left,” he said to Zelensky in a video filmed on the northern outskirts of Bakhmut and posted on his social media channels. “The pincers are tightening.”
They [Ukrainian soldiers] are fighting, but their lives near Bakhmut are short – a day or two. Give them a chance to leave the city. The city is in fact surrounded,” Prigozhin concluded.
Russian attempts at encircling the city seemed to have eased Thursday into Friday, according to the Institute for the Study of War, with focus shifting toward pushing Ukrainian forces to withdraw from the city.
Russian forces blow up vital bridge
Russian forces blew up a key bridge linking the besieged city of Bakhmut to the nearby village of Khromove overnight, police in the Donetsk region said.
Police in the city of Konstantinyvka told CNN they hope to repair the bridge in the coming days since it’s a vital artery for the extraction of civilians and the movement of supplies such as ammunition.
The bridge is also the last main supply route from Bakhmut to the city of Chasiv Yar.
The military can still access the city through dirt tracks and fields, police said.
The police’s account was confirmed by a special forces solder in Bakhmut, who told CNN the bridge was hit with a Russian missile, leaving a large crater.
A mandatory evacuation order is in place in the Donetsk region and about 5,000 people remain in Bakhmut, according to Ukrainian officials.
Russian forces are advancing on Bakhmut, but the Ukrainian military says it is holding its ground in the battle for the eastern city and not planning to withdraw.
Ukraine orders drone unit to leave Bakhmut, commander says
A Ukrainian drone reconnaissance unit based in Bakhmut has been ordered to leave the besieged eastern city, its commander said in a video posted on Telegram on Friday.
“In the middle of the night, the Madiar Birds unit received a combat order to immediately leave Bakhmut for a new place of combat operations,” Commander Robert Brovdi said.
Russian forces have advanced on Bakhmut over the past few days after months of intense shelling and fighting around the battered city, which sits toward the northeast of the Donetsk region and has been a target for Moscow for months.
“We are following the order,” Brovdi said, adding he did not know why the unit was being moved.
SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES
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