Britain says Ukraine forces defending Bakhmut under increasingly severe pressure

According to British military intelligence on Saturday, Ukrainian forces are encountering heightened pressure from Russian forces as they defend Bakhmut. Intense fighting has been reported in and around the eastern city.

To combat this, Ukraine is sending in elite units to reinforce the area. However, the Russian army and the private military group Wagner have already made progress into the northern suburbs of Bakhmut, as per the daily intelligence bulletin from the British Defence Ministry.

Latest Defence Intelligence update on the situation in Ukraine – 04 March 2023

Find out more about Defence Intelligence: https://t.co/ujfolFp8zj pic.twitter.com/76A97lCWK3

— Ministry of Defence 🇬🇧 (@DefenceHQ) March 4, 2023

After seven months of fighting, the battle for Bakhmut continues. If the Russian forces succeed in taking control of the city, which has been heavily damaged in the conflict and had a pre-war population of approximately 70,000, it would represent a significant win for Moscow in its costly winter offensive.

Despite the ongoing pressure from Russian forces, Oleh Zhdanov, a prominent Ukrainian military analyst, noted on Saturday that he could not detect any indications that Kyiv was planning to order a retreat from the city.

“At the moment the situation is more or less stabilized. In terms of the advancement of Russian troops, we practically stopped (it),” he said in a YouTube interview.

The situation in Bakhmut, Ukraine, remains tense as Russian forces continue to exert pressure on Ukrainian defenders, according to reports from British military intelligence and the Ukrainian armed forces’ general staff.

The battle for the city has raged for seven months, with Russian forces attempting to surround it and limit Ukrainian-held resupply routes. The British defence ministry has reported that two key bridges in the city have been destroyed in the last 36 hours, further limiting Ukrainian resupply.

However, defenders have repelled numerous Russian attacks, and there are no immediate signs that Kyiv is going to order a retreat from the city.

If Russia were to capture Bakhmut, it would be the first major victory in a costly winter offensive, and it would bring Moscow closer to capturing the Donbas industrial region, one of its primary objectives.

Also Read: Biden to tighten US investment regulations in China