Latest News on Bakhmut and the Russia-Ukraine War: Live Updates
SAPORIZHZHYA, Ukraine — President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Saturday gave the strongest confirmation yet that Ukraine’s long-awaited counteroffensive to push back Russia has begun.
“Counter-offensive and defensive measures are being taken in Ukraine,” Mr. Zelenskyy said at a news conference in Kyiv with visiting Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. “At what stage, I will not reveal in detail.”
His comment confirmed what military analysts, US officials and the Kremlin have been suggesting for days: that Ukrainian troops with Western main battle tanks and armored vehicles were attacking fortified Russian positions in several locations to the south and east.
A senior US military official on Saturday gave a comprehensive assessment of Ukraine’s counteroffensive so far, saying that “Ukrainians are making steady progress in accordance with their plan.” The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss further operations, gave no details.
One of the Ukrainian advances took place around the Russian-held town of Bakhmut to the east. Ukrainian military officials said on Saturday that Kiev’s forces advanced about a mile on some parts of the front line near Bakhmut and scored a win in one of three battles currently taking place as Ukraine’s counter-offensive takes shape in the south-east of the country .
The Ukrainian military attacked near Bakhmut to take advantage of the rotation of Russian units in the area, Colonel Serhiy Cherevaty, the spokesman for the Eastern Military Command, told local television. He said the Ukrainian military had been involved in six skirmishes near Bakhmut over the past 24 hours.
He did not specify where Ukraine had gone and his claims could not be independently verified. Moscow’s forces say they are repelling Ukrainian attacks in three areas that have been the focus of fighting in recent days, and Russian state news reported that Ukrainian forces were unsuccessful in their attempts to retake the Bakhmut area.
Ukrainian troops are fighting in fields and grassy rolling hills west of Bakhmut after being largely driven out of the city last month after the longest and bloodiest battle of the war.
Having presented the city’s capture as a victory, Russia must now defend it or risk an embarrassing setback. Ukraine’s goal in Bakhmut, according to military analysts and Ukrainian officers, is to force Russia to withdraw troops from elsewhere in southern Ukraine to defend the ruins of Bakhmut and inflict casualties.
“Our main goal remains unchanged,” said Mr. Cherevaty: “to inflict maximum damage on the enemy.”
Southwest of Bakhmut, Ukraine is fighting in two locations believed to be central to its broader counter-offensive objective, namely the disruption of Russian rail and road links linking Russia to the occupied Crimea peninsula. Last week, fighting erupted near the cities of Orichiv in the Zaporizhia region and Velyka Novosilka in the Donetsk region. Ukrainian officials did not comment on the fighting in those areas.
US officials have discussed critical military operations on condition of anonymity, confirming that Ukrainian troops suffered casualties and equipment losses in the initial fighting, as expected. Russian casualties are unclear, but attackers typically suffer higher initial casualties than dug-in defenders.
Russian military bloggers have already started winning laps, praising the military for what they called holding the line against an onslaught by Ukrainian forces, backed by the strength of western countries.
Russian State News Channel 1 reported that Russian forces repelled Ukrainian attacks near Lysychansk and Avdiivka, saying that Ukrainian forces “regularly failed in their attempts to enter Bakhmut, whose Soviet name is still Artemivsk in Russian news outlets “.
Videos and photos posted by pro-war Russian bloggers and corroborated by the New York Times show that at least three German-made Leopard 2 tanks and eight US-made Bradley fighting vehicles were recently abandoned or destroyed by Ukrainian troops. And Sasha Kots, a Russian military blogger, said on Telegram that captured German-made tanks were a “trump card in information warfare.”
As fighting along the front lines escalates, the two armies also fire long-range missiles, missiles, and drones at distant targets.
On Saturday night, Russian ballistic and cruise missiles and exploding drones hit a Ukrainian military airfield near Poltava east of Kiev, said Dmytro Lunin, head of the region’s military administration. Mr Lunin said the attack sparked fires and damaged equipment but no one was killed or injured.
In the Russian-occupied territory, an explosion damaged a Sea of Azov resort complex where Russian forces are stationed, Ivan Fedorov, the mayor of the city of Melitopol, told local news media. Russian forces later evacuated the site, he said.
Eric Schmitt contributed to reporting from Washington.