LONDON: Ukraine’s army has been forced to withdraw from some ground in the frontline city of Bakhmut as Russia has launched a second assault there with heavy artillery bombardment over the last two days, according to a British intelligence update on Friday.
It stated, referring to Russia’s defence ministry and its primary mercenary force, that Russia has re-energized its attack on the Donetsk Oblast town of Bakhmut due to better cooperation between Russian MoD and Wagner Group soldiers.
“Despite significant resupply issues, Ukrainian forces have made orderly withdrawals from the positions they have been forced to concede,” the British military said in a daily intelligence update. Wagner had assumed the lead on the Russian side in the months-long struggle, the bloodiest of the war for troops on both sides. Still, the leader of the mercenary group had grumbled about the regular military’s lack of assistance for his forces.
According to the British report, the Ukrainian military still controls the western areas of the town but has been exposed to particularly heavy Russian artillery fire in the preceding 48 hours. According to the report, Wagner battalions are now concentrating their efforts in the center of Bakhmut while Russian paratroopers relieve them in attacks on the city’s sides.
Bakhmut, which held around 70,000 people before the war, has been Russia’s main target in a massive winter assault that has yielded scant gains despite infantry ground combat of an intensity never seen in Europe since World War-II.
Moscow claims it will pave the way to capture further land in Ukraine’s eastern Donbas area, a major military goal. Ukraine, which is preparing its own counter-offensive, appeared to be abandoning Bakhmut at the end of February but said in March that it would continue fighting there, claiming that Russia was taking more casualties trying to storm it.
