© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: Ukrainian service members are seen next to an infantry fighting vehicle near the town of Bakhmut, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, in Donetsk region, Ukraine, February 25, 2023. REUTERS/Yan Dobronosov
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By Leonardo Benasatto
DONETSK PROVINCE, Ukraine (Reuters) – Russian forces stepped up their offensive in eastern Ukraine as they tried to encircle the small mining town of Bakhmut, the scene of the heaviest fighting on battlefields saturated by rain and spring thaw.
Russia is trying to cut off the vulnerable supply lines of the Ukrainian defenders in the city and force them to surrender or withdraw. That would give Moscow its first grand prix in more than half a year and pave the way for its capture of the last remaining urban centers in the Donetsk region.
“The enemy is constantly destroying everything that can be used to protect our fortification and defense positions. Our soldiers defending the area around Bakhmut are true heroes,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Monday.
Ukraine’s general staff said Russia had strengthened its forces in the Bakhmut area and was shelling settlements around the city.
Ukrainian soldiers in the Donetsk region barricaded themselves in muddy trenches after suddenly warm weather softened the frozen ground.
“Both sides remain in their positions because, as you see, spring means mud. Therefore, it is impossible to advance,” said Mykola, 59, commander of a Ukrainian front-line rocket launcher battery, looking at the coordinates for firing. on the screen of a tablet.
The spring thaw, known as rasputitsa, has a history of ruining armies’ plans to attack the soil of Ukraine and western Russia, turning roads into rivers and fields into impenetrable swamps.
Reuters saw several military vehicles stuck in the mud. In a trench, dug deep into the ground in a zigzag pattern, Volodymyr, a 25-year-old platoon commander, said his men were prepared to operate in any weather.
“When we are given a target, that means we have to destroy it.”
With its forces replenished with hundreds of thousands of recruits called up late last year, Russia has intensified its attacks along the eastern front.
Western countries say several of Russia’s attacks on Bakhmut have failed at great cost.
“Fierce battles are taking place there. The command is doing everything possible to prevent the enemy from advancing through our territory,” Serhiy Cherevatyi, spokesman for the Eastern Ukrainian military command, told Ukrainian television.
For its part, Moscow claimed to have destroyed a Ukrainian ammunition depot near Bakhmut and shot down US-made rockets and Ukrainian drones.
Reuters was unable to verify the reports from the battlefield.
Ukrainian military analyst Oleh Zhdanov said Russian forces had opened a gap between the villages of Yadhidne and Berkhivka, on the northern approaches to Bakhmut, as they tried to cut off the road west to Chasiv Yar.
“The southern part of Bakhmut is the only area that can be described as under Ukrainian control. In all other districts, the situation is unpredictable,” he said in a video commentary, adding: “It is impossible to say where the front line is.” .”
YELLEN IN Kyiv
US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen became the latest senior Western official to visit the Ukrainian capital Kiev, pledging assistance and more measures to isolate Russia after meeting with Zelenskiy and other officials.
His boss, President Joe Biden, went there a week ago to mark the first anniversary of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
“The United States will support Ukraine for as long as it takes,” Yellen, flanked by sandbags in the cabinet ministers’ office, told Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal on Monday.
Yellen announced the transfer of the first $1.25 billion of the last tranche of $9.9 billion in economic and budget assistance from Washington, and visited a school where teacher salaries are reimbursed by budget support from the United States.
He also backed the completion of a fully funded program for Ukraine with the International Monetary Fund by the end of March.
Ukraine’s military forces have mainly focused on holding defensive positions in recent weeks, but are expected to attempt a counteroffensive later this year using new weapons promised by the West.
Zelenskiy pushed again for F-16 fighter jets that his Western allies have been reluctant to provide.
“Our pilots and anti-aircraft units, and other experts in our air force are doing a great job,” Zelenskiy said in his late-night radio address. “But we will be able to fully protect our skies when the aviation taboo is completely lifted in relations with our partners.”
The February 24 anniversary of the war saw both sides trying to prove their resolve for a second year of fighting.
Russian President Vladimir Putin delivered a major speech abandoning the last remaining nuclear arms control treaty with the United States but did not announce any major moves to turn the tide of the war.
He was overshadowed by Biden, who traveled to kyiv and delivered his own landmark speech in Warsaw.
Outnumbered Ukrainian troops repelled a Russian attack aimed at taking the capital early in the war and later recaptured a substantial part of the territory. Russia still occupies almost a fifth of the Ukraine, which it claims to have annexed.