A Ukrainian service member at the front line in the region of Bakhmut, Ukraine, on April 5.KAI PFAFFENBACH
Ukrainian and Russian forces battled in Bakhmut, the devastated eastern city which has become a symbol of Kyiv’s defiance, while seven civilians were reported killed by Ukrainian artillery strikes in Russian-controlled areas.
Ukrainian soldiers in trenches just outside Bakhmut said they were ready for a long-anticipated counter-offensive once the weather improves. Elsewhere, other Ukrainian recruits trained hard for new combat missions.
Four civilians died in Russian-controlled Donetsk when shells hit a car park, and another six people were injured, Russia’s Tass agency said.
RIA news agency said three people died in blasts at a bus stop in Lysychansk, to the northeast of Donetsk.
Reuters was unable to independently verify the reports.
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The months-long battle for Bakhmut, one of the last urban centres in the eastern Donetsk province yet to fall to Moscow, has proven one of the bloodiest of Russia’s invasion.
“(Battles) are underway in the streets, enemy attempts to encircle the city are failing. Our command fully control the situation,” said Andriy Yermak, a senior adviser to Zelensky.
The leader of Russia’s private Wagner militia, Yevgeny Prigozhin, said fighting was continuing in the west of the city.
“It must be said clearly that the enemy is not going anywhere,” he said on his Telegram channel.
Prigozhin has often complained of a lack of ammunition for his fighters in Bakhmut. But Ukrainian border guard Levko Stek, speaking in a video clip amid explosions, said Ukrainian forces did not sense any “ammunition hunger” on the Russian side.
Western analysts have played down the strategic significance of Bakhmut but Ukraine has framed its dogged defence of what is now a completely destroyed city as a way of wearing down Russian forces. Both sides have suffered huge casualties there.
“Bakhmut is performing the key task of inflicting as many losses on Russia as possible and, most importantly, to prepare for a counter-attack to take place in late April-May,” Pavlo Narozhniy, a Ukrainian military analyst, told NV Radio.
“We are ready, we have to do it, the sooner the better. The enemy must be chased away. At the moment we are waiting for the weather to change, the mud is an obstacle,” Naza, a 21-year-old unit commander told Reuters outside Bakhmut.
Speaking from close to the front line, the commander of Ukraine’s 5th separate assault brigade, who gave his name as Ivan, said: “Those service members that are not on the front line are training.”
Ukrainian military expert Vladyslav Selezniov said Ukraine would be able to defend positions in the more heavily built-up west of Bakhmut as long as their route to the west, the “road of life” for getting supplies in and wounded out, remained open.
Russia says its “special military operation” in Ukraine was necessary to protect its security against what it sees as a hostile and aggressive West. Kyiv and its Western allies say Moscow is waging an unprovoked war aimed at grabbing territory.
Dmitry Suslov, an adviser to Putin, speaking to Italy’s Corriere della Sera newspaper in an interview published on Thursday, said Ukraine’s counter-offensive was likely to focus on the Sea of Azov and cutting off the Crimea peninsula – annexed by Moscow in 2014 – but played down the chances of it succeeding.
“If the Kiev offensive fails, the West will be short of weapons and at that point Russia will be able to mobilize 400,000 men for the final attack,” he said.
In comments that seemed to confirm the importance of Crimea in any Ukrainian counter-offensive, an adviser to Zelensky told the Financial Times in an interview that Kyiv would be willing to discuss the future of the Black Sea peninsula if its forces reached the boundary of Crimea.
“If we will succeed in achieving our strategic goals on the battlefield and when we will be on the administrative border with Crimea, we are ready to open (a) diplomatic page to discuss this issue,” Andriy Sybiha said in the interview.