More Humiliation for a Deserving Vladimir Putin

Bakhmut, PBS

"What Konashenkov [Russian Defence Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov] described, unfortunately, is called 'a rout' and not a re-grouping."

"The loss of the Berkhivka reservoir -- the loss of this territory they gave up -- that's 5 sq km, just today."

"The enemy has completely freed up the Chasiv Yar-Bakhmut road which we had blocked. The enemy is now able to use this road, and secondly they have taken tactical high ground under which Bakhmut is located."

Yevgeny Prigozhin, chief, Wagner Group

"Our path ahead is not easy [but Ukraine is] much stronger now than last year or in any other year of this war for freedom and independence of our country."

"We are preparing a counterattack for the illegally occupied areas based on our constitutionally-defined legitimate borders, which are recognized internationally."

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy

 

"Our troops are gradually advancing in two directions in the suburbs of Bakhmut ... however, the situation in the city itself is more complicated."

"Thanks to the competent planning of the command and the courage of our fighters, the enemy is not able to take the city under its control."

Ukrainian deputy defence minister Hanna Malyar

Ukrainian soldiers fire a cannon near Bakhmut on Friday. (Libkos/The Associated Press)

Friday, Moscow had little option but to acknowledge its forces had fallen back north of Ukraine's battlefield city of Bakhmut following a strong Ukrainian offensive. Moscow claims it is a regrouping tactic for its forces. A claim cuttingly refuted by the head of Russia's private Wagner army. There are similar reports of Ukrainian advances south of the city, suggesting a co-ordinated push by Kyiv to have its military encircle Russia's forces in Bakhmut, completely upending Moscow's objective for months during bloody fighting.

Each side reports the largest Ukrainian advances in six months, even though Kyiv is downplaying suggestions that these events represent the launch of the much-anticipated Ukrainian spring counteroffensive. Ukraine launched an assault north of Bakhmut with over 1,000 troops and some 40 tanks, according to Russian Defence Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov. If confirmed the scale of the assault would represent the largest Ukrainian offensive since late fall.

Troops in one area had indeed fallen back to regroup in more favourable positions close to the Berkhivka reservoir northwest of Bakhmut, stated Konashenkov as well as contending that Russian troops had repelled 26 attacks elsewhere. Statements that failed to impress Yevgeny Prigozhin, Wagner Group's head, who scathingly begged to differ, his interpretation of events pointing to yet another Russian rout by Ukrainian troops.

Prigozhin in another video message stated that Ukraine troops seized high ground overlooking Bakhmut, opening the main highway leading into the city from the West. On its part, Ukraine typically withholds comment on operations while they're underway. Its military command committed only to saying its troops pushed forward about two km close to Bakhmut. 

A Ukrainian serviceman fires a rocket in the Kharkiv region | Dimitar Dilkoff/AFP via Getty Images

 

Two days earlier a Ukrainian unit boasted of having defeated a Russian brigade southwest of the city, recapturing a swath of land. Where, according to Prigozhin, the Russian brigade there too had fled. The north and south flanks, guarded by regular Russian troops were crumbling, according to Prigozhin. His own troops have been fighting to push Ukrainian forces out of the western outskirts of Bakhmut. Seems they're still under-equipped, taking heavy losses, and on their own.

The tide appears to have distinctly turned in the 15-month-old war in the six months during which Kyiv's troops were on the defensive as Russia mounted its winter campaign bringing a bloody ground combat to the area, while yielding incremental gains. With the turn of the year however, Kyiv received hundreds of new Western tanks and armoured vehicles, holding them in abeyance while preparing for the long-awaited counteroffensive meant to recapture Russian-occupied Ukrainian territory.

Still, Ukrainian officials and President Volodymyr Zelenskyy himself play down the suggestion the offensive has begun. Kyiv, states Zelenskyy, requires additional time awaiting arrival of more equipment. A statement that Prigozhin refers to as deceptive, that the Bakhmut advances themselves amounted to the start of the spring offensive is underway. One that Moscow has been preparing for since last fall, building lines of anti-tank fortifications along hundreds of front miles.

In the process, Russia is evacuating civilians living near the conflict zone in Ukraine's partially occupied Zaporizhzhia province. The commander of Russia's Black Sea Fleet said in comments published Friday that its defences were being tightened in view of a flurry of Ukrainian drone strikes targeting its home base, the port of Sevastopol, in occupied Crimea.

"The commander of the 4th motorized rifle brigade, Colonel Vyacheslav Makarov, personally led the battle from the [Bakhmut] front."

"While repulsing of a third attack, the brigade commander was seriously wounded and died during the evacuation from the battlefield."

Moscow’s Ministry of Defense

Ukrainian soldiers prepare a multiple launch rocket system for firing towards Russian troops near a frontline, in Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia region, on Friday. (Reuters)