Published: Less than 20 min ago
Putin is not letting go of Bachmut in pursuit of the biggest success since last summer.
Now Russia is reportedly deploying paratroopers to bring down the bombed-out city.
– The Russians are razing the city to the ground. They kill everyone they come across, says Pavlo Kyrylenko, governor of Donetsk.
Fighting in and around the town of Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine has been raging for months.
The private army Wagner group has previously declared victory in the city, but it has been refuted and the devastation continues.
Putin and his military leadership are said to have decided that Bachmut will fall at all costs – which would mean the biggest Russian success since last July.
A meat grinder
The fighting has been described as a “meat grinder” where Russian soldiers were sacrificed by the leadership in a tactic that involves advancing meter by meter.
According to the Ukrainian army, 277 Russian soldiers were killed in the past 24 hours around Bachmut, CNN reports.
The situation is worst for the civilians who still remain in the city, which before the war had 75,000 inhabitants.
Bachmut is under constant artillery fire and Russian troops continue their attempts to completely surround the city. Fighting rages from house to house, says a Belarusian volunteer fighting on the Ukrainian side to Reuters.
Distress call from Bachmut
On Tuesday, Pavlo Kyrylenko, military governor of Donetsk, stated that the Russians are “razing Bachmut to the ground”.
“They kill everyone they come across. We carefully note all war crimes. They must be held responsible for everything,” he writes on Telegram.
He states that a 70-year-old man and a boy were killed by Russian shelling on Tuesday. Another four civilians were injured in the same attack.
Russia appears to be trying to advance as far as possible before Ukraine receives the promised tanks from the West, writes Reuters.
“Putin’s Revenge”
On Monday, Ukrainian President Zelenskyi described the Russian advance in the east as Putin’s “attempt to avenge previous losses”.
– We will stop them all, piece by piece, destroy them and prepare our big counter-offensive, says Zelensky.
According to Ukrainian former commander Maksym Zhorin, who is in contact with soldiers inside Bakhmut, Russian airborne forces have now clashed with the Wagner group in the battle for the city, writes CNN.
“Originally, the attack force consisted of prisoners, then more ‘elite units’ within the Wagner group, but now airborne forces have also entered the fighting,” writes Zhorin on Telegram.
Wants full control over Donbass
“Wagner group soldiers are forced to advance on foot, but the Russian paratroopers have armored troop transport vehicles and armored personnel carriers that they actively use”.
According to Reuters, military analysts in the West state that the battle for Bachmut has no major strategic importance for Russia.
But it is one of the few cities of comparable size in the Donbass region that is still, to some extent, under Ukrainian control.
Russia has stated that full control of Donbass is one of the overall goals of its “special military operation”.