President Volodymyr Zelensky visited Bakhmut, the epicentre of fighting in Russia‘s nearly 10-month invasion, to praise the soldiers for the ‘courage, resilience and strength’ as artillery boomed in the background.
The President of Ukraine described the war-battered city as Ukraine’s frontline ‘fortress’ during a visit today on Tuesday, December, 20, 2022.
This came as the Kremlin announced Russian leader Vladimir Putin will meet senior military officials Wednesday to weigh up Russia’s full-scale assault on Ukraine.
The Russian President will also set military goals for next year after a series a battlefield defeats.
President Volodymyr Zelensky described Bakhmut, the epicentre of fighting in Russia’s nearly 10-month invasion, as Ukraine’s frontline ‘fortress’ during a visit today while he praised his troops for their war efforts in the 10-month invasion
Speaking to Ukrainian troops in Bakhmut, President Zelensky said: ‘Here in Donbas, you’re protecting all of Ukraine. ‘They will do everything they’ve done here in other towns of our country, because they don’t want anything Ukrainian to exist, I’m sure of that’
The city, about 600 kilometers (380 miles) east of Kyiv, has remained in Ukrainian hands, thwarting Moscow’s goal of capturing the rest of Donetsk province and the entire Donbas industrial region.
Speaking to Ukrainian troops in Bakhmut, President Zelensky said: ‘Here in Donbas, you’re protecting all of Ukraine.
‘They will do everything they’ve done here in other towns of our country, because they don’t want anything Ukrainian to exist, I’m sure of that’.
‘This is not just Bakhmut, this is fortress Bakhmut,’ he said, handing out honours to Ukraine servicemen.
To gain control of the destroyed city, Russia is believed to have relied on mercenaries, prison conscripts and newly mobilised soldiers to send waves of attacks for months against Ukrainian positions.
The brutal trench warfare and artillery battles around Bakhmut- once known for its vineyards and cavernous salt mines – have flattened large portions of the city and its surroundings.
During this trip to Bakhmut, deputy Defence Minister Ganna Malyar said: ‘Tomorrow is the winter equinox and the nights will get shorter. The darkest night will end with the dawn of our victory.’
To gain control of the destroyed city, Russia is believed to have relied on mercenaries, prison conscripts and newly mobilised soldiers to send waves of attacks for months against Ukrainian positions
The visit comes after Putin said earlier Tuesday that the situation in several territories of Ukraine that Moscow claims to have annexed but does not control militarily was ‘extremely difficult’.
In September, he announced the annexation of four regions in the east and south of Ukraine after Moscow’s proxies held referendums there, denounced as a sham by Kyiv and the West.
His troops never fully controlled any of the territories and last month were forced to retreat from the regional capital of the southern Kherson region after a months-long Ukrainian counteroffensive.
Putin told the Russian security services on their professional holiday ‘the situation in the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics, in the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions is extremely difficult’.
Singling out those working in the ‘new regions of Russia’, he added that ‘the people living there, the citizens of Russia, rely on you, on your protection’.
And at a ceremony in the Kremlin later Tuesday, the Russian leader handed awards to the Moscow-installed leaders of the regions.
‘Our country has repeatedly faced challenges and defended its sovereignty. Today, Russia is once again facing the same challenge,’ he said, referring to territories recaptured by Ukraine.
The Kremlin said Putin’s meeting with defence officials would include a keynote message from Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu on the ‘special military operation,’ the expression Moscow uses to describe its invasion.
Putin’s comments came one day after his first visit in several years to neighbouring Belarus for talks with strongman leader Alexander Lukashenko, who allowed Russian troops to use his country to launch their invasion of Ukraine in February.
Ukrainian military officials said there was a ‘gradually increasing’ threat from Belarus but the foreign ministry dismissed the talks as political theatre, even though the leaders vowed deeper military cooperation.
‘The Putin and Lukashenko meeting is another dance they have performed… no critical decisions were made. Whatever happens, we are ready for any scenario,’ Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said during an online briefing.
Putin denied plans to absorb Belarus during the visit Monday but the two ex-Soviet allies vowed closer military cooperation going forward.
The Ukrainian presidency meanwhile said that Russian attacks across Ukraine had left five people dead including three in the Donetsk region, where Bakhmut is located, and in the Kherson region.
The war has taken a significant toll on Ukraine’s economy and the IMF said Monday it had approved an economic monitoring programme which could help Kyiv secure funding from donors, with the war-torn country needing more than $40 billion this year.
Russia’s invasion, which began February, 24, 2022 has lost momentum. T
he illegally annexed provinces of Donetsk, Kherson, Luhansk and Zaporizhzhia remain fiercely contested.
Capturing Bakhmut would sever Ukraine’s supply lines and open a route for Russian forces to press on toward cities that are key Ukrainian strongholds in the Donetsk province.
Mercenaries from the Wagner Group, a shadowy Russian military contractor, are reported to be leading the charge in Bakhmut.
Before Russia’s full-scale invasion, Russia-backed separatists had controlled parts of Donetsk and neighboring Luhansk since 2014. The two provinces together make up the Donbas.
Unverified videos on a popular Russian social media platform showed the Wagner Group’s leader, Yevgeny Prigozhin, standing near an artillery piece and saying he was ready to meet Zelensky in Bakhmut.
In a statement accompanying the videos, Prigozhin’s spokespeople relayed a message to Zelensky reading: ‘If you haven’t left Bakhmut yet, I’m ready to meet you. Prigozhin.’ It wasn’t clear from the videos where they were shot or when.
At the Kremlin ceremony, Putin presented awards to the Moscow-appointed heads of the four illegally annexed regions of Ukraine.
‘Our country has often faced challenges and defended its sovereignty,’ Putin said. ‘Now Russia is again facing such a challenge. Soldiers, officers and volunteers are showing outstanding examples of courage and self-denial on the front line.’
In a video address honoring Russia’s military and security agencies, he praised the security personnel deployed to the four regions, saying that ‘people living there, Russian citizens, count on being protected by you.’
Putin acknowledged the challenges faced by security personnel deployed there.
‘Yes, it’s difficult for you,’ he said, adding that the situation in the regions is ‘extremely difficult.’
The former KGB operative added: ‘Your duty is to do all that is needed to ensure their safety and protection of rights and freedoms.’
Putin also promised to reinforce units there with more equipment and personnel. The regions are under pressure from a Ukrainian counteroffensive.
Putin also called on counterintelligence officers to step up efforts to ‘derail activities by foreign spy agencies and quickly track down traitors, spies and saboteurs.’
British authorities, meanwhile, gave a bleak assessment of how the war is going for Russia.
Some 100,000 Russian troops were ‘dead, injured or have deserted’ in the invasion, U.K. Defense Secretary Ben Wallace said.
Wallace didn’t give a figure for Ukrainian casualties, but a senior U.S. military recently put the estimated number of Ukrainian troops killed and wounded at about 100,000.
Losses in Russia’s military command have also taken a toll, as has the destruction of equipment. ‘Not one single operational commander then in place on Feb. 24 is in charge now,’ Wallace told lawmakers in the House of Commons.
‘Russia has lost significant numbers of generals and commanding officers.
‘Russian capability has been severely hampered by the destruction of more than 4,500 armored and protected vehicles, as well as more than 140 helicopters and fixed wing aircraft.’
Ukraine’s counteroffensive has succeeded in recapturing large swaths of land. After 300 days of war, the U.K. Ministry of Defense tweeted, Ukraine has liberated about 54% of the maximum amount of extra territory Russia seized in the invasion.
It didn’t say what portion of the Ukrainian territory Russia controlled at the peak of its gains.
Russia now controls about 18% of internationally recognized areas of Ukraine, including those parts of the Donbas and Crimea seized earlier, it said.
With battles still raging, Zelensky’s office said at least five civilians have been killed and eight wounded since Monday, with Russian forces attacking nine southeastern areas.
Donetsk Gov. Pavlo Kyrylenko said Russia shelled 19 cities and villages in the region in the past day.
With the fighting in the east at a stalemate, Moscow has used missiles and drones to attack Ukraine’s power equipment, hoping to leave people without electricity as freezing weather sets in.
Life in the Ukrainian capital took a minor but welcomed step toward normality with the reopening of two of Kyiv’s main subway stations for the first time since the war began. The key hubs of Maidan Nezalezhnosti and Khreschatyk, like the capital’s other underground stations, have served as air raid shelters.
‘It’s the feeling that despite everything, we are returning to a routine that we were used to,’ said 24-year-old passenger Denys Kapustin. ‘This is very important.’
