Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy acknowledged that the battle for the eastern Donbass region was “painful and challenging” as Kremlin forces continued efforts to encircle the town of Bakhmut, which was largely destroyed after months of Russian shelling.
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“I would like to pay special tribute to the bravery, strength and resilience of the soldiers fighting in the Donbass region, which includes Bakhmut and Zelenskiy called in his daily video address late March 5.
“This is one of the toughest fights. Painful and difficult,” he added. “We will hold out and drive out the invaders.”
The center of the battle remained in and around Bakhmut, the town of a pre-war population of 70,000 which the Kremlin attempted to capture despite massive battlefield casualties.
The Ukrainian General Staff wrote in its war report late March 5 that Russian forces were “continuously attacking Bakhmut and the surrounding settlements” using mortars and artillery.
It was not stated whether Russian forces had made any progress in their attempt to encircle the city. The Wagner Group, a Russian-led mercenary force, led the attack on Bakhmut at great loss of life for their fighters.
According to earlier reports, some Ukrainian civilians and military units took the last remaining route out of the city, despite Russian forces shelling the road.
Donetsk province governor Pavlo Kyrylenko said two civilians were killed in Bakhmut over the past day.
AP journalists near the destroyed town reported March 5 they saw Ukrainian troops construct a pontoon bridge to help the few remaining residents flee to the nearby village of Khromove, where the journalists later reported that at least five houses caught fire as a result of Russian attacks.
In Kharkiv province, shelling destroyed several houses and killed one person, regional governor Oleh Synyehubov said.
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military of Ukraine called on March 5 that it had repelled more than 130 enemy attacks in 24 hours and claimed to be inflicting massive Russian casualties, but gave no precise word on the fate of Bakhmut, where Russian forces are said to have nearly surrounded the devastated city.
Kyiv has tried to stress the toll in casualties it has inflicted on the Russian side amid attrition offensives, including Moscow’s ongoing effort to encircle and capture Bakhmut in the eastern Donetsk region.
Zelenskyy, meanwhile, tried to highlight Kiev’s preparations and Western support for early EU accession as another aspect of ongoing international support for Ukrainians defending their country from the unprovoked full-scale Russian invasion that began a year ago.
Zelenskyy said after meeting the President of the European Parliament, Roberta Metsola, at an event in western Ukraine partly devoted to Russian war crimes: “The task is to actively prepare everything for our country’s membership in the European Union, which increase arms sales to Ukraine and tighten sanctions against Russia Russia.”
In his regular daily report Early on March 5, the Ukrainian General Staff cited Russian offensives towards Bakhmut, Avdiyivka, Lyman and Shakhtar in Donetsk, as well as further north at Kupyan in the Kharkiv region.
It also said it killed 930 Russian troops in the previous 24 hours of combat.
Both sides in the fighting classify their casualty numbers, and RFE/RL cannot independently confirm casualty or other battlefield reports from either side.
Serhiy Cherevaty, a spokesman for Ukraine’s Eastern Group of Forces, told CNN on March 4 that their soldiers were still controlling Bakhmut.
“There is also no mass withdrawal of Ukrainian troops,” said Cherevaty.
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Moscow, meanwhile, tried to exude confidence with a second claim in as many days after a visit to the front lines by Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, though his exact whereabouts were impossible to confirm.
The Russian Defense Ministry said Shoigu met with army commanders in the war zone to get an update on the situation.
An accompanying video showed Shoigu with Russia’s supreme commander, General Valery Gerasimov, and a deputy, General Sergei Surovikin.
Amid reports of battlefield setbacks since the invasion began, but particularly in recent months, Shoigu has come under increasing pressure from pro-war advocates in Russia, including Wagner chief Prigozhin, for the military’s performance.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said March 4 Shoigu had visited near the front lines of eastern Ukraine, without specifying the location.
Kiev has acknowledged the dire situation surrounding Bakhmut’s defenses but is said to have still swapped troops, while Western military experts said the situation there was critical amid “increasing pressure”.
“In the direction of Bakhmut, the enemy has not given up trying to encircle the city of Bakhmut,” the General Staff said early on March 5.
Western pundits have questioned Russia’s push for Bakhmut, saying it was less strategic and more symbolic value for the Kremlin.
Ukraine’s general staff said the Russians had lost more than 153,000 troops by its count since the full-scale invasion began in February 2022.
US and other western officials recently estimated that the total number of casualties on the Russian side – including dead and wounded – is approaching 200,000.
Moscow has conceded “significant” casualties, but most recently reported cumulative casualties through September of less than 6,000.
A spokesman for Ukraine’s Air Force on March 5 advocated the delivery of modern Western aircraft, particularly the US-designed F-16s, amid a growing threat from Russian guided missiles, glide bombs and modified bombs that “can fly tens of kilometers”. to meet their goals.
The speaker, Yuriy Ignat, called in TV comments that such planes could also help the Ukrainian armed forces “drive out” the Russian planes firing such weapons.