February 19 (Portal) – President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in an interview published on Sunday that Ukraine will maintain its months-long defense of the eastern city of Bakhmut, bearing in mind the price paid in lives.
Zelenskyi was quoted in the Italian daily Corriere della Sera as debating whether Kiev’s outnumbered forces should remain in the eastern Ukrainian city all but destroyed by Russian shelling.
Bakhmut, in the frontline Donetsk region, had a population of 70,000 before the war, but now Ukrainian officials estimate there are fewer than 5,000 civilians.
“Yeah, it’s not a particularly big city. In fact, like many others in the Donbass, it was devastated by the Russians. It is important that we defend it, but not at any cost and not that everyone dies. ‘ Zelenskyy told the newspaper.
Analysts say the city has symbolic rather than strategic value as a gateway to cities further west in the Donetsk region.
last update
Watch 2 more stories
Zelenskyi said that Russian commanders were intent on pushing into the cities of Kramatorsk and Sloviansk further west in the Donetsk region “and as far as (the central city) Dnipro.”
“We will defend ourselves and meanwhile prepare the next counterattack.”
Russia launched its invasion a year ago this week, focusing on securing control of the Donbass, made up of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, after initially failing to advance into the capital, Kiev.
Russian troops have besieged Bakhmut since July, when they captured two larger towns further north.
Russian troops, led by the mercenary force of the Russian Wagner Group, have made increasing advances in nearby villages in recent days, and fighting has engulfed their northern districts.
But Ukrainian military analysts have said that the town, protected by a river and forested areas, has significant significance in pinning down Russian occupying forces.
“Currently there is no reason for the Ukrainian military to leave Bakhmut. The city is not surrounded,” military analyst Oleksandr Kovaleno of Ukraine’s Information Resistance think tank told news site nv.ua.
“Bachmut plays an important role – it serves as a trap. For nine months the resources and means of the Russian occupiers have dawned on them and they have been killed in large numbers. It doesn’t have to be seen as a fortress, but as a trap.”
Reporting by Gianluca Semeraro and Ronald Popeski; writing by Ron Popeski; Edited by Lidia Kelly and Lisa Shumaker
Our standards: The Thomson Portal Trust Principles.