Ukraine says Russia suffered ‘significant losses’ in dozens of attacks in Bakhmut

Ukrainian servicemen fire a shell at Russian troops outside the frontline town of Bakhmut on March 5, 2023. (Photo: Anna Kudriavtseva/Reuters)

Russian forces suffered “significant losses” after launching dozens of attacks around the eastern city of Bakhmut over the past 24 hours, the Ukrainian military said Tuesday.

“During the last day, Ukrainian soldiers repelled more than 140 enemy attacks” along the front lines across eastern Ukraine, the General Staff said in its daily update.

Many of those attacks have come north of Bakhmut, where Russian forces are trying to cut off the Ukrainians’ ability to access the city, he said. “In the last 24 hours, the enemy has carried out 37 attacks near the village of Dubovo-Vasylivka,” he said, referring to a settlement just northwest of Bakhmut.

Ukrainians dig in: Ukraine’s decision to reinforce units holding the city comes amid renewed tensions between the head of the Wagner private military company, Yevgeny Prigozhin, and the Russian Defense Ministry.

Prigozhin has frequently complained that his fighters are being deprived of ammunition, while claiming that they are fighting most of the fighting around Bakhmut.

Late on Monday, he wrote on his company’s Telegram channel that on Sunday he had written “a letter to the commander of the SVO group [operación militar especial] about the urgent need to allocate ammunition”.

“He [lunes] at 8 am, my representative at the headquarters had his pass revoked and access to the group’s headquarters was denied,” Priogozhin said.

He also suggested that Ukraine was allocating more units to “unlock” Bakhmut.

important battle: In its latest battlefield assessment, Washington’s Institute for the Study of War stated that “the seizure of Bakhmut is necessary but not sufficient for future Russian advances in Donetsk Oblast, and Russian forces have already suffered losses so important fighting for the city that their attack will most likely culminate after they have secured it, if not before”.

“Ukraine’s fight for Bakhmut has taken on strategic importance due to the current composition of Russian forces deployed in the area,” ISW claimed.