Kiev, April 6, (dpa/GNA) – Ukrainian soldiers fought off a series of Russian attacks in Bakhmut’s industrial zone using artillery and grenade launchers, according to the military leadership in Kiev, while Ukraine’s president insisted his country still controls the city.
Despite being outnumbered, the Russian units failed to make a breakthrough, Kiev’s military leaders said on Wednesday.
Their report came after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky insisted that his troops would keep fighting for Bakhmut, despite the “very, very difficult” situation there.
“But we are in Bakhmut and the enemy does not control Bakhmut,” he said, during a visit to Warsaw.
Russia has been trying to take Bakhmut, in the Donetsk region, since late summer. Moscow’s troops already control most of the city and parts of the centre, but Ukrainian soldiers are still resisting in the western part of the city, once home to some 70,000 people.
Zelensky said the situation in Bakhmut remains “very, very difficult,” but that Kiev’s forces still control the embattled eastern town, despite claims to the contrary.
“The largest number of different weapons, such as artillery, are being used there,” he said during a visit to Poland on Wednesday.
The amount of available ammunition changes daily and Ukrainian troops are fighting with varying degrees of success, he said. “But we are in Bakhmut and the enemy does not control Bakhmut,” Zelensky underlined.
His comments contradict recent statements from Moscow. The head of the Wagner mercenary force fighting in Bakhmut, Yevgeny Prigozhin, had claimed that his units had “legally” taken Bakhmut by capturing the city’s administration building.
Bakhmut is of strategic importance as it lies on the defensive line established between the towns of Siversk and Bakhmut in the Donetsk region.
If Bakhmut falls, it will open the way for Russian troops to the major cities of Slovyansk and Kramatorsk, which would bring Russia closer to attaining its goal of completely seizing Donetsk.
As fighting continues to rage, further south, Moscow said it was prepared to work with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to establish a security zone around the occupied Ukrainian nuclear power plant in Zaporizhzhya, according to Russian nuclear company Rosatom.
Escalations in the fighting in the region has repeatedly put Europe’s largest nuclear power plant at serious risk, triggering concerns throughout around the world.
Rosatom signalled Moscow’s willingness to cooperate with the agency after a meeting of its representatives with IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi on Wednesday.
The IAEA has been trying to establish a security zone around the plant for months to curb the risk of nuclear disaster.
Meanwhile, Zelensky’s visit to Poland resulted in further pledges of military aid, as Polish President Adrzej Duda said he wanted to inspire other leaders to provide similar levels of support.
But German Vice Chancellor Robert Habeck again underlined the limits of German involvement with regard to support for Ukraine.
“We must not become a party to the war. It is important that this boundary is always maintained,” he told Deutschlandfunk German public radio.
This plays a major role in all considerations of support for Ukraine, Habeck said before returning from his two-day visit to Kiev.
“It is always a consideration where a step might go so far as to actively involve us in the war,” said Habeck. Asked where he personally drew a red line, he said: “Having German troops in Ukraine.”
Further, the issue of alleged child abductions by Russia continues to cause outrage in Ukraine. At her recent press conference, Russian Children’s Rights Commissioner Maria Lvova-Belova admitted to another “kidnapping” of a Ukrainian teenager, according to Kiev.
“This story is the next public confession of war crimes – the abduction of Ukrainian children!” the Ukrainian parliament’s human rights commissioner, Dmytro Lubinets, wrote on Telegram on Tuesday evening.
He said the case involved a 17-year-old boy who was taken from Russian-occupied Mariupol in the Donetsk region to a foster family in Russia. “Yet the child has a sister in Ukraine!” stressed Lubinets. Moreover, the boy had been prevented from returning home to Ukraine on his own. After reaching Belarus, the teenager was arrested and brought back to Russia.
Since shortly after the beginning of the Russian war against Ukraine, Kiev has accused Moscow of “deporting” Ukrainian children. Most recently, Kiev spoke of 19,514 children affected, 4,390 of them orphans. Moscow denies this and speaks instead of evacuations.
Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine more than 13 months ago and occupies parts of the country’s territory. Many boys and girls have lost their parents as a result of Russia’s war. Thousands are on the run.
GNA