Battle For Bakhmut Intensifies, Ukraine Says Russian Troops Blew Up Key Bridge

The head of Russia's Wagner group stated that Bakhmut was now almost entirely surrounded while police said that Russian forces blasted a key bridge linking the besieged city to a nearby Ukrainian village.

Representative Photo | A Ukrainian serviceman sets up a camouflage net over a Msta-B howitzer, near the frontline town of Bakhmut on March 2, 2023, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Source : AFP

New Delhi: Russian troops exploded a key bridge linking the besieged city of Bakhmut to a nearby Ukrainian village, Khromove overnight, police in the Donetsk region informed, as per a report by CNN. With this move, Russia is on the cusp of its first major victory this year in the war against Ukraine.

CNN reported the Police in Konstantinyvka city as saying that they hope to repair the bridge in the coming days as it is important for the extraction of civilians as well as the movement of ammunition and other supplies.

The bridge is the last main supply route from Bakhmut to the city of Chasiv Yar, CNN reported. According to the police, the military can still access the city through dirt tracks and fields.

CNN reported a special forces soldier in Bakhmut as confirming that the bridge was hit by a Russian missile, resulting in a huge crater at the spot. 

As per the report, Ukrainian officials said that a mandatory evacuation was ordered in the Donetsk region as around 5,000 people were still in the city blasted to ruins.

Meanwhile, the Ukrainian military made it clear that their troops would continue holding their ground in the battle for the eastern city and were not planning to withdraw. Kyiv recaptured the territory in the second half of 2022 but forces were on the defensive for three months.

According to the news agency Reuters, the head of Russia's private army the Wagner Group stated that Bakhmut was now almost entirely surrounded, with only one route left open for Ukraine's troops.

Reuters's report mentioned that its journalists west of the city saw Ukrainians digging new trenches for defensive positions.

Bakhmut before the Russian invasion had a population of about 70,000. The victory could give Russia its first major win after Moscow called up hundreds of thousands of personnel last year.

As per Reuters, Russia further claimed that seizing Bakhmut would be helpful in capturing the surrounding Donbas region, while Ukraine said the city now has little strategic value. However, Ukraine said the fate of the operations in Bakhmut would decide the course of fighting in the war.