Russia uses the most experienced units of the Wagner mercenary group and their army to capture the besieged eastern city of Bakhmut, said the Ukrainian military. It was the commander of the Ukrainian Ground Forces, Oleksandr Syrskyi pictured visiting the town at the front on Friday for briefings with local commanders on how to increase defense capacity.
The head of the Wagner mercenary group said his fighters had “virtually surrounded” Bakhmut. Only one street remains under Ukrainian control, Yevgeny Prigozhin added in a video posted online urging Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to leave the city. His claims could not be verified.
The situation in Bakhmut seemed extremely precarious amid evidence that Ukraine was preparing extensive new defensive positions, including around the nearby town of Kramatorsk. Video posted online showed the Demolition of a railway bridge over the Bakhmutka River to the east of the city, while other footage allegedly showed damage to a small road bridge.
Ukraine has ordered a mandatory evacuation of families and vulnerable residents from the frontline city of Kupyansk and adjacent north-eastern areas. The evacuation order was due to the “unstable security situation” caused by Russia’s constant shelling of the city and its surroundings, it said. Russian troops withdrew from key cities in the northeastern Kharkiv region, including Kupyansk, and Ukraine recaptured it last September.
US President Joe Biden and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz met at the White House on Friday, where both leaders lauded each other’s support for Ukraine. “As a NATO ally, we are making the alliance stronger and more capable of acting,” said Biden. Scholz told Biden it was important that the US and Germany organized in “lockstep” since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine last February.
US Attorney General Merrick Garland made an unannounced trip to Ukraine on Friday, according to Justice Department officials. Garland had traveled to the western city of Lviv at the invitation of Ukraine’s attorney general, officials reported to USA Today.
Serbia has denied supplying arms to Ukraine, its foreign minister said. After Moscow asked Thursday whether Serbia had supplied thousands of missiles to Ukraine in its fight against Russia, Ivica Dačić said no arms had been exported from the country to any parties involved in the “conflict”.
The US has announced a new $400 million military aid package including ammunition and other support to Ukraine. The package will be funded through the President’s Drawdown Authority, which authorizes the President to transfer items and services from U.S. stocks without Congressional approval in an emergency, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said.
Defense Minister of Ukraine Oleksii Reznikov said he is confident that Western countries will supply fighter jets to Kiev, and that he is optimistic that the war will end this year. In an interview with the German newspaper Bild, Reznikov said Ukraine expects to receive “two to three different types” of fighter jets and he believes this will be “again done through some kind of coalition,” referring to the “tank coalition.” ” obtained Leopard 2 tanks from western allies.
The EU foreign policy chief said he saw a “little improvement” in diplomacy with Russia after a meeting of G20 foreign ministers in Delhi. Josep Borrell said Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov stayed in the room when Western countries criticized Russia – unlike at the last G20 foreign ministers meeting in Bali last year when he stormed out.
Mykhailo Podolyak, a Ukrainian presidential aide, has again denied that Ukraine carried out any attacks on Russian territory. Vladimir Putin said Thursday that Russia had been hit by a “terrorist attack” in Bryansk and vowed to crush a Ukrainian sabotage group that had been shooting at civilians. Ukraine accused Russia of staging a false “provocation”. The Kremlin said Friday it would take action to prevent a repeat of what it described as a border raid.