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| Photo: Vasuyoshi Chiba/AFP/Getty Images |
Russian forces are putting pressure on Ukraine along a growing portion of the front line, with attacks coming in the Luhansk and Zaporizhzhia regions in recent weeks, in addition to the fierce fighting around Bakhmut in the Donetsk region.
Bakhmut, in eastern Ukraine, is increasingly being cut off from other Ukrainian-held territory, according to the British ministry of defense, as Moscow continues to make progress in its efforts to encircle the city.
After months of assault, the two main roads in and out of Bakhmut for Ukrainian forces are now within range of Russian fire, the ministry wrote Sunday on Twitter, making efforts to resupply troops in the city difficult.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the situation at the front is “getting tougher.”
“The occupier throws more and more of its forces to break our defenses,” Mr. Zelensky said in his nightly video address on Saturday. “It is very difficult in Bakhmut.”
In addition, Mr. Zelensky said other parts of the Donbas—the industrial heartland in Ukraine’s east—were also under Russian assault, with attacks coming near Lyman, to north of Bakhmut, and Vuhledar, to the southwest.
Ukrainian officials insisted that, despite Moscow’s manpower advantage around Bakhmut, Russian forces hadn’t made significant territorial gains.
Speaking on Ukrainian television on Sunday morning, Serhiy Haidai, governor of the Luhansk region, said Russian claims to have captured Bilohorivka, north of Bakhmut, were false.
“Our troops remain in their positions,” he said. “The number of Russian attacks has…increased, but all of them have been repulsed by our troops.” --->READ MORE HERE
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| REUTERS/Vitalii Hnidyi |
Ukraine expects a possible major Russian offensive this month, but Kyiv has the reserves to hold back Moscow's forces even though the latest Western military supplies will not all arrive in time, Ukraine's defence minister said on Sunday.
Russia could launch the new attack for "symbolic" reasons around the first anniversary of its invasion, but its resources are not ready from a military point of view, the minister, Oleksii Reznikov, told a news conference.
"Despite everything, we expect a possible Russian offensive in February. This is only from the point of view of symbolism; it's not logical from a military view. Because not all of their resources are ready. But they're doing it anyway," he said.
Russian forces have been making incremental advances in the east as Moscow tries to capture the embattled city of Bakhmut and revive its faltering invasion after a string of battlefield setbacks in the second half of last year.
Reznikov said the offensive would likely be launched in the east - where Russia is trying to capture all the heavily-industrialised Donbas region - or the south where it wants to widen its land corridor to the occupied peninsula of Crimea.
He estimated that Russia had 12,000 troops in Belarusian military bases, a number that would not be enough to launch a significant attack from Belarus into Ukraine's north, reopening a new front. --->READ MORE HEREFollow links below to +++++relevant+++++ and related stories:
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++++++Ukraine's forces still hold Bilohorivka, last part of Luhansk region - governor++++
+++++WSJ: Russia’s Casualties in Ukraine Near 200,000+++++
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