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Ukrainian President Zelensky said Russian forces have “destroyed” the eastern town of Bakhmut in his late-night speech amid a two-day aerial bombardment of the country.
Russia has reportedly carried out missile, rocket and aircraft strikes across the country over the past 48 hours as it struggles to establish control of regions illegally annexed in September.
Zelensky said that the situation remains “very difficult” in the frontline cities in the Donbas.
He said: ‘Bakhmut, Soledar, Maryinka, Kreminna. For a long time, there is no place left to live on the land in these areas that has not been damaged by shells and fire.’
“The occupiers actually destroyed Bakhmut, another town in Donbas that the Russian army turned into burnt-out ruins.”
An aerial view of Bakhmut, the site of the heaviest battles with Russian forces, on December 9.
Bakhmut remains strategically important for Russia, but has also gained symbolic importance.
Firefighters extinguish a fire after shelling by the Russian army in Bakhmut, Ukraine, on December 7.
Local residents walk down a street in Bakhmut as Russia’s attack on Ukraine continues.
Bakhmut has watched relentless shelling for the past two days as Russia sought to establish its superiority over the region.
Some 20 airstrikes and more than 60 rocket attacks were reported in Ukraine between Friday and Saturday, December 10, with Bakhmut seeing much of the devastation.
Some buildings remain visibly standing and residents have been seen on the streets, although more than 20 populated places were attacked towards the end of the week.
The city lies at a major intersection of supply routes and, when fighting began in May, was seen as a vital staging point for assaults deeper into the Donbass.
Since Russia illegally annexed Donetsk, Lugansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson from Ukraine in September 2022, the regions have become of both symbolic and strategic importance to Putin’s war effort.
In Odessa, a key Black Sea port city to the west, overnight drone strikes also knocked out power to much of the region, local government head Maxim Marchenko said.
Ukrainian firefighters extinguish a fire after the Russian army’s shelling of Bakhmut on Wednesday.
Residential houses in Bakhmut damaged in the shelling, Friday, December 9, 2022
Ukrainian service members carry weapons and supplies through Bakhmut on December 9.
Stretchers outside a hospital where soldiers are brought for treatment in Bakhmut, Ukraine
An emergency worker and his dog warm up in front of a wood stove at a shelter in Bakhmut
Russia’s eastern offensive managed to capture almost all of Luhansk during the summer.
Donetsk managed to mount a successful resistance and the Russian military in recent weeks has invested resources around Bakhmut in an attempt to encircle the city, Ukrainian officials and analysts said.
After Ukrainian forces recaptured the southern city of Kherson nearly a month ago, fighting has intensified around the town of Bakhmut, showing Putin’s desire for visible gains after weeks of clear setbacks.
Seizing the city would drive a gap between Ukrainian supply lines and open a route for Russian forces to advance towards main Ukrainian strongholds in Donetsk, Kramatorsk and Sloviansk.
But after weeks of no progress, some analysts have questioned the logic of a war of attrition around the city.
The Institute for the Study of Warfare, a US think-tank, published on Thursday: ‘The costs associated with six months of brutal, grueling and attrition-based combat around Bakhmut far outweigh any operational advantages that the Russians can get by taking Bakhmut. ‘
An apartment burns after Russian shelling in Bakhmut, Ukraine, on Wednesday, December 7.
Firefighters in Bakhmut on Wednesday tackle a fire in the city after heavy shelling.
Ukrainian emergency services workers extinguish a fire in Bakhmut, Ukraine, on December 8.
Ukrainian service members rest at their shelter in Bakhmut on Friday, December 9, 2022.
Residents stand in the courtyard of their destroyed apartment building in Bakhmut, on December 9.
Ukraine’s military also reported attacks in other provinces on Saturday: Kharkiv and Sumy in the northeast, Dnipropetrovsk in central Ukraine, Zaporizhzhia in the southeast and Kherson in the south.
Putin has claimed Zaporizhzhia and Kherson, as well as Donetsk and Lugansk that make up Donbas, as Russian territory since September.
Having gained the upper hand in Mariupol earlier this year, the feared mercenaries of Yevgeny Prigozhin’s Wagner Group are believed to be leading the advance towards Bakhmut.
Prigozhin was recorded in September trying to recruit Russian prisoners as conscripts with the promise of release for six months’ service.
Russian law does not allow the release of prisoners in exchange for military service.
This followed an ambitious goal set in September to mobilize an additional 300,000 troops for the war in Ukraine after a series of successful Ukrainian counteroffensives.
Despite heavy fighting and shelling of key Ukrainian cities since then, Russian gains have been minimal.
The front line has shifted only a few meters in recent weeks and Ukraine says the impending winter is likely to set them back further.
Temperatures in the Ukraine are already routinely below freezing, which means the ground is hard and difficult to dig.
It means that the advancing Russian troops are unable to dig out defensive positions and are severely exposed to artillery with most of the natural and man-made cover already in pieces.
A Ukrainian tank crew repairs their vehicle near the front line in Bakhmut in early December.
Ukrainian soldier, wounded in conflict, receives treatment at Bakhmut Hospital, December 5