Today, Saturday, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu inspected the conduct of combat operations in southern Donetsk, according to Russian media.
According to Russian media, Sergei Shoigu inspected the command center of one of the military formations of the “Vostok” group in the southern Donetsk region, noting that he listened to the report of the commander of the military unit on the current situation and the conduct of the military operation.
Wagner besieged Bakhmut
In its latest report, British intelligence said today, Saturday, that the Ukrainian defenses in Bakhmut are under great pressure from Russian forces as the fighting intensifies.
This comes as media reports reported, late on Friday, that the Russian forces are now in full control of the eastern part of the city of Bakhmut, after they took control of the “Taver” meat processing plant in Bakhmut and advanced towards the driving school inside the almost completely besieged city.
The Russian Wagner Group had said earlier that its forces had effectively besieged the city of Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine, while the group’s leader, Yevgeny Prigozhin, demanded that the Ukrainian forces withdraw from the city.
Prigozhin said, in a recorded clip 7 kilometers north of Bakhmut, that the city is almost completely besieged at the present time, as only one exit road remains open for the Ukrainian forces.
“The Wagner Special Military Group units have virtually surrounded Bakhmut,” Prigozhin said in a video clip.
Archyde.com estimated from the footage and the buildings shown in it that it was taken on the roof of a building in a village about 7 kilometers north of the center of Bakhmut.
“There is only one way (out) left… The blockade is on its way to being tight,” he added.
Prigozhin urged Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to order a withdrawal from Bakhmut to save the lives of his soldiers. The camera then switches to showing three Ukrainian captives, a man with a gray beard and two boys, asking to be allowed to go home.
Destruction of bridges in Bakhmut
On Friday, Russian media quoted a fighter from the Wagner Group as saying that the Ukrainian army was destroying all bridges on the outskirts of Bakhmut.
“From what we can see, the Ukrainian army is destroying the city’s infrastructure to slow down our advance, bridges and communications,” the fighter told Sputnik.
Victory for Russian forces in Bakhmut, which had a pre-war population of about 70,000, would give Russia its first major advance in a costly winter offensive after it called up hundreds of thousands of reservists last year, according to Archyde.com.
Russia says it will be a stepping stone towards capturing the surrounding Donbass region, one of the most important goals of the war.
Battle of Bakhmut.. Russian control approaching
Ukraine withdraws from Bakhmut
The commander of the Ukrainian drone unit in Bakhmut, Robert Brovdy, known as “Madyar”, said in a video clip he posted on social media that his unit had received orders from the army to withdraw immediately from the city. He pointed out that they have been fighting there for 110 days.
Each side says it has inflicted heavy losses on the other in Bakhmut.
And Kiev insisted that its forces are still holding their positions there, while acknowledging that the situation has deteriorated over the past few days.
Volodymyr Nazarenko, a deputy commander in the Ukrainian National Guard, told Ukrainian radio station NV that the situation was “critical” and that fighting was going on “without interruption”.
And he added, “They do not care about losses in an attempt to seize the city with their attack. The task of our forces in Bakhmut is to inflict the enemy as many losses as possible. The cost of every meter of Ukrainian territory costs hundreds of lives from the ranks of the enemy.”
“We need as much ammunition as possible. There are more Russians here than we have to eliminate them,” he added.