The commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian army said his forces were pushing back the Russian attack on the city in the Donbass region. The Ukrainian forces manage to stabilize the situation around the city of Hamut in the east of the country. This is what the commander of the Ukrainian army said. The now-destroyed city is at the center of the biggest battle of the Russia-Ukraine war in recent months.
“The situation on the front line is the most difficult in the region in Hamut,” said Valery Zlozhny, the commander of the armed forces of Ukraine, after a telephone conversation with British Chief of Defense Staff Tony Radakin. “Due to the tremendous efforts of the defense forces, we are managing to stabilize the situation,” Zaluzheny said in a Facebook post.
Bakhmut, whose population once numbered about 70,000 people, was almost emptied of civilians during months of intense fighting between Russian and Ukrainian forces, although some residents remained. Russian forces made gains throughout the city whose symbolic importance outweighed any military significance as the battle continued. The battle for Behemoth is one of the bloodiest and longest in the war that entered its second year last February.
According to the latest intelligence update on Saturday from the British Ministry of Defence, Russia’s attack on Bahmet has largely stopped. “This is probably the result of extreme exhaustion of the Russian forces,” the British statement said, adding that Ukraine also “suffered heavy losses.”
A commander in the Ukrainian army, Oleksandr Sirsky, said that a counterattack may soon be launched against “exhausted” Russian forces near Bakhmut. But President Volodymyr Zelensky said a counterattack could not happen now because his country lacked weapons, equipment and ammunition. “We can’t start yet,” Zelensky said. “Without tanks and artillery, it is not possible to send brave soldiers to the front,” he said.