Russian attacks on the besieged eastern city of Bakhmut have «decreased» as they replace and regroup their forces, Ukraine’s deputy defense minister said on Saturday.
“Yesterday and today there are no active battles there, neither in the city nor on the flanks,” Hanna Maliar said in a Telegram post. «Instead, the enemy is actively shelling the outskirts of the city.»
After an intense months-long battle for the city that came to embody the Ukrainian resistance, the Kremlin declared full control of the city last week after months of fighting not seen in Europe since World War II. But the celebrations were dismissed in kyiv, where officials insisted the city was not fully under Russian control and the battle was far from over.
Maliar said on Saturday that Ukrainian troops «firmly hold» the heights overlooking Bakhmut from the north and south, as well as a part of the outskirts of the city, but have not advanced in the past two days to focus on «other tasks ”.
Russian forces had “bet on airstrikes and intensive artillery fire,” he said. «The decrease in the offensive activity of the enemy is due to the fact that the troops are being replaced and regrouped,» he added. «The enemy is trying to strengthen its own capabilities.»
Meanwhile, he said Ukrainian forces had «suspended» their own advances «to fulfill other tasks.»
His comments came as Oleksandr Syrskyi, the commander of Ukraine’s ground forces, posted a video on Saturday that he said showed Ukrainian special forces operating inside the ruined city.
NBC News has not been able to independently verify the video.
Separately, Britain’s Defense Ministry said in its daily intelligence briefing that forces from the Wagner mercenary group, whose fighters led the costly Russian advance on Bakhmut, «had probably begun to withdraw» from some of their positions in the city.
Yevgeny Prigozhin, the millionaire Wagner owner with long-standing ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin, said on Thursday his forces had begun to withdraw and were handing control over to the Russian military.
Prigozhin’s triumph at Bakhmut was a much-needed victory for Putin, whose February 2022 invasion of Ukraine has lost momentum and now faces the prospect of a long-awaited Ukrainian counteroffensive using advanced weapons supplied by Kiev’s Western allies.
Kiev is expected to try to retake Russian-occupied territory soon and on Saturday Ukrainian Armed Forces Commander-in-Chief Valerii Zaluzhnyi posted a smartly produced video on his Telegram channel showing some of his troops swearing in and getting ready. for the battle.
“The time has come to return what is ours,” he wrote.
Elsewhere, a strike by two drones triggered an explosion in Russia’s Pskov region near the border with Belarus, local governor Mikhail Vedernikov said on Telegram on Saturday.
An oil pipeline administration building was damaged, it added.
Vedernikov did not point a finger at Ukraine, but Moscow has previously blamed kyiv for similar incidents.