Kiev, May 18, (dpa/GNA) – Ukrainian troops have made further gains against Russian forces in the area of the east Ukrainian city of Bakhmut, which has been contested for months.
“They managed to advance between 150 and 1,700 metres within a day,” the spokesman for the Eastern Army Group, Serhiy Cherevaty, told Ukrainian television on Thursday.
This was achieved despite the Russian superiority in soldiers, ammunition and technology, he said. Cherevaty did not give more specific details on the locations that the Ukrainian army had gained.
The head of the Russian mercenary force Wagner Group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, confirmed the Ukrainian advance. Prigozhin said Ukrainian units had advanced almost 600 metres north of Bakhmut. “Do not give up the settlement of Sacco and Vanzetti,” he told the Russian army leadership.
Prigozhin had been warning for weeks that the Ukrainian army could advance in the area. The small, abandoned village is about 16 kilometres north of Bakhmut and about 5 kilometres north-west of Soledar, which was captured by the Russians in January.
Ukraine has been fending off a Russian invasion for about 15 months with Western help. The area around the town of Bakhmut, once home to 70,000 people in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine, has been the focus of fighting for months.
GNA