British military intelligence’s most recent assessment of the fierce fighting occurring in and around the eastern city of Bakhmut noted that Ukraine is coming under increasingly intense pressure from Russian forces. According to the British Defence Ministry’s daily intelligence report, Ukraine is bolstering the area with elite units while the regular Russian army and the forces of the private military Wagner organisation continue to move into the suburbs.
The key issues that Ukraine and Russia will be facing in Bakhmut are as follows:
- According to a Facebook post by the general staff of the Ukrainian armed forces, Russian forces were attempting to surround Bakhmut but were unsuccessful.
- With its triumph in Bakhmut, Russia may have earned its first significant victory in the previous seven months.
- Oleh Zhdanov, a prominent Ukrainian military analyst, stated that he saw no immediate indications that Kyiv would order a withdrawal from Bakhmut.
- “The situation is currently more or less stable. In terms of Russian troop advancement, we effectively halted (it).”
- According to the British defence ministry, two key bridges in Bakhmut have been destroyed in the last 36 hours.
- Ukrainian-held resupply routes out of the city are becoming increasingly limited, according to the UK defence ministry.
- According to the report, one of those bridges connected Bakhmut to the city’s last major supply route from the Ukrainian-held town of Chasiv Yar.
- The Russian attacks in the villages of Vasyukivka, Orikhovo-Vasylivka, Dubovo-Vasylivka, and Hryhorivka were thwarted, according to the Ukrainian general staff.
- Russia has previously stated that Bakhmut will be a necessary step in completing the conquest of the Donbas region, which is one of Moscow’s top priorities.
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