KIEV, Feb 27 (Portal) – Commander of Ukraine’s Ground Forces Colonel-General Oleksandr Syrskyi visited besieged Bakhmut to boost morale and discuss strategies with units defending the city and surrounding villages in eastern Ukraine the military announced over the weekend.
Military analysts expect that in the coming days Ukrainian forces will put their “maximum effort” into defending Bakhmut, which has seen some of the bloodiest attrition in recent months of Russia’s year-long invasion.
Russia has made conquering Bakhmut a priority in its strategy to seize control of Ukraine’s eastern industrial region of Donbass.
“(Syrskyi) listened to the unit commanders as they tackled pressing issues, provided assistance in solving them and supported the soldiers,” the ground forces said on the Telegram messaging app.
The 57-year-old commander, one of the most experienced in Ukraine, is credited with being the mastermind behind the defeat of Russian forces as they advanced on Kiev early in the war and in the Kharkiv region in September.
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Syrskyi, now tasked with defending Bakhmut, has made a number of trips to the city to ensure Kiev forces will hold it.
“A well-thought-out system of technical barriers, combined with a natural (hilly) landscape, turned the area into a real impregnable fortress, against the walls of which not only a thousand enemies died,” Syrskyi said in early February.
Russia had recently made strides in encircling Bakhmut, which is now down to about 5,000 residents out of 70,000, but its failure to capture the town deprived Russian President Vladimir Putin of a chance to arrive on Friday, the first anniversary of his invasion, May 24 February to declare a victory.
Over the weekend, Ukrainian forces launched a series of counterattacks and repulsed Russian forces around the village of Yahidne after the Russian Wagner mercenary group claimed to have captured it and the village of Berkhivka.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said on Sunday that its forces had destroyed Ukrainian “sabotage and reconnaissance groups”, including in the Yahidne area, while Russia’s state agency TASS reported that Ukrainian forces blew up a dam north of Bakhmut.
Portal could not independently verify the reports.
The fierce fighting along the front lines in southern and eastern Ukraine, particularly near Bakhmut, now consists of stealthy attempts by both sides to shift the line, sometimes just a few yards at a time.
The weekend’s Ukrainian counterattacks north of Bakhmut helped stabilize the front there, military analysts said. But Moscow has continually deployed new troops and equipment.
“Russia could attack from three sides starting Monday,” Ukrainian military analyst Oleh Zhdanov said in a social media video. “Ukraine is trying hard to hold Bakhmut.”
Putin invaded Ukraine, claiming it was necessary to protect Russian sovereignty, but Ukraine and its western allies say it was nothing more than an unprovoked land grab.
Reporting by Oleksandr Kozhukhar; Writing from Lidia Kelly in Melbourne; Edited by Michael Perry
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