Ukraine claims further advances around Bakhmut

DONBAS REGION, Ukraine — Ukrainian soldiers made further advances around Bakhmut over the weekend, the country’s deputy defense minister said on Monday, putting pressure on Russian positions on the city’s flanks as it tries to retake momentum after months of being on the defensive.

Although the battle inside the city continues to rage, the Ukrainian success around Bakhmut — while limited — presents Russian commanders with the difficult choice of whether to send reinforcements that could weaken positions elsewhere in the face of Ukraine’s looming counteroffensive.

Hanna Maliar, the deputy defense minister, said Monday that “against all odds, our troops managed to advance for several days.” A day earlier, she reported that Ukraine’s forces had “captured more than 10 enemy positions” after punching through Russian lines north and south of Bakhmut last week.

It was not possible to independently verify her claims. Although Russia’s Ministry of Defense acknowledged on Friday that its forces had retreated in one segment around Bakhmut, it claimed on Sunday that “there has been no breakthrough” against Russian lines and that all Ukrainian attacks had been repelled. But in a rare acknowledgment of high-level casualties, it also said that two Russian colonels were killed in the fighting around the city.

The Ukrainian advances around Bakhmut have been their first significant gains in the monthslong battle for the devastated city. At the same time, however, the Russian forces that control about 90% of Bakhmut itself continued to pound the last remaining Ukrainian positions inside the city limits.

Both sides have suffered heavy casualties in the fight for Bakhmut. Since December alone, the United States estimates that more than 20,000 Russian soldiers have been killed in Ukraine, many around the city.

The Ukrainians are now seeking to exploit those Russian losses by attacking positions around the city that they lost in the winter and could be trying to encircle the Russian forces inside the ruins of Bakhmut.

Maj. Oleksandr Pantsyrny, 26, the commander of Ukraine’s 24th Separate Assault “Aidar” Battalion, said he led an operation that resulted in a breakthrough against Russian flanks in the surrounds of Bakhmut last week. Over three days, his battalion recaptured several miles of territory, he said. His account of the fighting could not be independently confirmed.

Pantsyrny said the Ukrainian breakthrough came as units of Russia’s Wagner mercenary group, which has spearheaded the assault on Bakhmut, began withdrawing units from outlying suburbs early this month in order to regroup.

“We were watching,” he said in a telephone interview Sunday. “They started step by step, handing over positions and moving troops for assaults inside Bakhmut.”

He said the Ukrainians spotted a weakness as the Wagner troops rotated out and hit Russian army units as they arrived to take over. The next day, he said, his troops followed with a second assault against arriving Russian reinforcements.

“We guessed the right moment of the rotation,” Pantsyrny said, adding that the Russian defenders were unfamiliar with the terrain and “not used to such intensity of combat.”

Even as Ukrainian soldiers advanced along the rolling hills and open plains north and south of Bakhmut, the battle inside the ruined city was a different story. Russian forces have captured nearly all of the city over months of bitter fighting, with the remaining Ukrainian defenders confined to a small western section and facing relentless assault.

On Monday, Russia’s Defense Ministry said assault units, supported by airborne troops, continued to battle for the western neighborhoods of Bakhmut.

“Things are difficult in Bakhmut and the surrounding area,” Maliar, the Ukrainian deputy defense minister, said Monday, adding that “heavy fighting continues.”

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.