Russia Mounts Attacks On Eastern Ukraine, Zelenskyy Says Bakhmut Is ‘Destroyed’

Zelenskyy said that the situation in numerous frontline cities in eastern Ukraine's Donetsk and Luhansk provinces "remains very difficult."

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that the Russian forces have destroyed the eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut

New Delhi: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Saturday said that the Russian forces have destroyed the eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut while Ukraine’s military witnessed missile, rocket and air strikes in multiple parts of the country that Moscow is trying to conquer despite months of resistance, the news agency Associated Press reported.

The most recent clashes in Russia's 9 1/2-month conflict in Ukraine have focused on four regions that Russian President Vladimir Putin claimed to have acquired in late September. The battle reflects Russia's attempt to regain control of those areas, as well as Ukraine's determination to restore them.

Zelenskyy said that the situation in numerous frontline cities in eastern Ukraine's Donetsk and Luhansk provinces "remains very difficult." Together, the provinces form the Donbas, a vast industrial region bordering Russia that Putin identified as a focal point from the beginning of the war and where Moscow-backed rebels have battled since 2014, AP reported.

“Bakhmut, Soledar, Maryinka, Kreminna. For a long time, there is no living place left on the land of these areas that have not been damaged by shells and fire,” Zelenskyy said in his nightly video address. “The occupiers actually destroyed Bakhmut, another Donbas city that the Russian army turned into burnt ruins.”

The AP reported that some buildings remain standing in Bakhmut, and the remaining residents still mill about the streets. But like Mariupol and other contested cities, it endured a long siege and spent weeks without water and power even before Moscow launched massive strikes to take out public utilities across Ukraine.

Pavlo Kyrylenko, the governor of the Donetsk region, estimated seven weeks ago that 90% of the city's prewar population of more than 70,000 had fled in the months since Moscow focused on conquering the entire Donbas.

The Ukrainian military General Staff reported missile attacks, about 20 airstrikes and more than 60 rocket attacks across Ukraine between Friday and Saturday.

Spokesperson Oleksandr Shtupun said the most active fighting was in the Bakhmut district, where more than 20 populated places came under fire. He said Ukrainian forces repelled Russian attacks in Donetsk and neighboring Luhansk, AP reported.

During the summer, Russia's relentless eastern onslaught succeeded in taking nearly all of Luhansk. Donetsk escaped the same fate, and the Russian military has recently put troops and resources surrounding Bakhmut in an attempt to encircle the city, according to analysts and Ukrainian authorities.

After Ukrainian forces recaptured the southern city of Kherson nearly a month ago, the battle heated up around Bakhmut, demonstrating Putin’s desire for visible gains following weeks of clear setbacks in Ukraine.

Taking Bakhmut would rupture Ukraine’s supply lines and open a route for Russian forces to press on toward Kramatorsk and Sloviansk, key Ukrainian strongholds in Donetsk. Russia has battered Bakhmut with rockets for more than half of the year. A ground assault accelerated after its troops forced the Ukrainians to withdraw from Luhansk in July.

“The costs associated with six months of brutal, grinding, and attrition-based combat around #Bakhmut far outweigh any operational advantage that the #Russians can obtain from taking Bakhmut,” the Institute for the Study of War, a think tank in Washington, posted on its Twitter feed on Thursday.

The Russian Defense Ministry said Saturday that Russian troops also pressed their Donbas offensive in the direction of the Donetsk city of Lyman, which is 65 kilometers (40 miles) north of Bakhmut. According to the ministry, they “managed to take more advantageous positions for further advancement.”

Ukraine’s military on Saturday also reported strikes in other provinces: Kharkiv and Sumy in the northeast, central Ukraine’s Dnipropetrovsk, Zaporizhzhia in the southeast and Kherson in the south. The latter two, along with Donetsk and Luhansk, are the four regions Putin claims are now Russian territory.

(With inputs from AP)