There has been movement on the battlefront around the town of Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine, which has been the focus of fighting for months. According to unanimous Russian and Ukrainian information today, Ukrainian troops have made gains in the region.
Troops are advancing in two directions on the outskirts of Bakhmut, Ukraine’s Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Malyar said. However, the situation in the city center is “complicated”.
Russia admitted yesterday that its own troops had withdrawn from an area near Bakhmut and regrouped. The head of the Russian Wagner mercenary group Yevgeny Prigozchin spoke about the defeat of regular troops. Ukraine occupied an elevation in front of the city and controlled the main road to Bakhmut, previously controlled by Wagner’s mercenaries.
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The British Defense Ministry said Russian troops had withdrawn in disarray from positions near Bakhmut over the past four days. A spokesman for the Eastern Group of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said its troops “liberated an area of 17.3 square kilometers in three days of counter-offensive”.
It remains unclear whether the advances are a prelude to the much-anticipated full-scale Ukrainian counter-offensive. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy avoided concrete answers on the sidelines of an official visit to Rome: “I cannot answer this question, but you will see the results and Russia will feel them,” he told Italian television.