Bakhmut is ‘nearly destroyed like Mariupol’ as Russian forces encircle Ukrainian eastern front town

Bakhmut is “nearly destroyed,” as is the besieged port city of Mariupol, as Russian troops surround the Ukrainian city on three sides amid fierce street fighting.

The city, about 400 miles southeast of Kiev, has for months been a prime target of Moscow’s dragging eastern offensive into the war, with Russian troops and private Wagner Group encircling Ukrainian units.

It has now become too dangerous for the last remaining residents to leave the area by vehicle, with a woman killed and two men badly injured by shelling as they tried to cross a makeshift bridge yesterday.

Putin’s forces relentlessly attack the small mining town as part of the effort that would bring them a first major victory in more than half a year.

But both sides are said to have suffered huge casualties in the fighting, with Kiev officials claiming seven Russian soldiers were killed for every Ukrainian troop killed in the area, The Sunday Times reports.

Soldiers of a Ukrainian assault brigade prepare to fire a British L118 105mm howitzer into Russian trenches

Funeral directors lower the coffin of Volodymyr Hurieev, a Ukrainian soldier killed in the Bakhmut area

Much of the town is now reduced to rubble after repeated shelling, with around 4,000 residents reportedly still living in the area.

Bakhmut’s deputy mayor Oleksandr Marchenko has accused Russian troops of turning the city into a new Mariupol.

He told the BBC: ‘No building is left untouched. They want to destroy Bakhmut as they did Mariupol.’

Mariupol is now entirely in the hands of Russian forces, having been cut off from the rest of Ukraine early in the war and subjected to horrific barrages and a siege.

Citizens were left without heating, food or water for weeks and described melting snow for a drink before drinking from radiators when the snow was gone.

It was the scene of perhaps the deadliest single attack of the war when a Russian plane bombed a theater with the word “children” scrawled on the sidewalk outside, killing up to 600 people sheltering inside.

Thousands are known to have perished during the siege, with their bodies often piled up in mass graves hastily dug along roads.

Alexander Rodnyansky, an economic adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, noted that Russia used the best troops of the Wagner group to surround the city, while Zelensky accused Moscow of throwing waves of men at Bakhmut without regard to their to live.

Recent drone footage shows the extent of the devastation in the city, while Zelensky has said it is “devastated.”

Flames and smoke rise into the sky from burning buildings, while constant gunfire and explosions echo from the city’s crumbling walls.

It comes amid fears of an imminent withdrawal of Ukrainian troops from Bakhmut, with units destroying two key bridges in the past two days – including one connecting it to the nearby town of Chasiv Yar along the last remaining supply route.

The British Ministry of Defense said in a Twitter update that the destruction of the bridges came as Russian fighters pushed further into Bakhmut’s northern suburbs.

Bakhmut has been a prime target of Moscow’s dragging eastern offensive into the war for months, with Russian forces – including troops from the privately owned Wagner Group – closing in on them.

The destruction of the bridges prevents Russian troops from taking them and gaining a vital supply route themselves.

The British Ministry of Defense said in a Twitter update that the destruction of the bridges came as Russian fighters continued to push into Bakhmut’s northern suburbs.

The Institute for the Study of War, a Washington-based think tank, said Ukrainian troops could “carry out a limited and controlled withdrawal from particularly difficult areas of eastern Bachmut” as they try to curb Russian movements there and create escape routes to the west. to limit. .

The capture of Bakhmut would not only give Russian fighters a rare battlefield gain after months of setbacks, but it could also sever Ukraine’s supply lines and allow Kremlin forces to advance to other Ukrainian strongholds in the Donetsk region.

But Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to Ukraine’s presidential office, said yesterday that his troops will not leave the area.

Some reports also mentioned plans for reinforcements, despite President Zelensky saying last week that the situation in the city was “increasingly difficult.”

Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin, a rogue millionaire with longstanding ties to Putin, also said Wednesday that he has seen no signs of a Ukrainian withdrawal from the city so far. He claimed that Kiev has in fact strengthened its positions there.

A Ukrainian assault brigade soldier walks along a muddy road used to transport and position British L118 105mm howitzers

Ukrainian soldiers prepare ammunition to fire from a 105mm howitzer at Russian positions in Bakhmut

“The Ukrainian army is deploying additional troops and doing what it can to maintain control of the city,” Prigozhin said. “Tens of thousands of Ukrainian soldiers put up fierce resistance and the fighting is getting bloodier by the day.”

Meanwhile, a defense source told The Sunday Times that even if Bakhmut fell, it “wouldn’t make much of a difference strategically, as Russian forces had already occupied the hills around Bakhmut.” [Bakhmut] but would certainly be totemic’.

After the loss of a large area in the second half of 2022, Russian troops have been replenished with hundreds of thousands of reservists.

Kiev, for its part, has been mostly holding on to defense for the past three months, hoping the Russian attack will exhaust Moscow’s troops before Ukraine launches a counterattack with new weapons promised by the West.