Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Kyiv would take the appropriate action should Ukrainian forces be encircled in the key city of Bakhmut. This comes as fighting for control of the city continues, the longest battle in the war that has been going on for more than a year.
Speaking at a news conference during a visit to Poland, Zelenskyy said that Ukrainian forces in Bakhmut have only advanced a little but were pushed back by Russian forces. However, Zelenskyy stressed that Ukrainian forces are still in Bakhmut, which is in Ukraine’s Donetsk region, one of the territories Moscow claims to have annexed last year.
“We are in Bakhmut and the enemy does not control it,” said Zelenskyy. “For me, the most important is not to lose our soldiers, and of course, if there is a moment of even hotter events and the danger we could lose our personnel because of encirclement – of course the corresponding correct decisions will be taken by generals there.”
Zelenskyy’s visit to Warsaw comes as Ukraine is expected to launch a counterattack to reclaim land territories seized by Russian forces in the coming weeks or months. Zelenskyy also noted that the more ammunition Ukraine receives from its allies in the West, the faster Ukrainian forces will be able to push back in Bakhmut and in other territories.
“There is success in some districts of Bakhmut – we’re going forward. Or there’s no success and we’re again leaving for positions,” said Zelenskyy.
On Thursday, the British defense ministry said in its intelligence update that according to reports on Russian social media, the Russian defense ministry dismissed the commander of Russia’s Eastern Group of Forces on the ground in Ukraine, Colonel-General Rustam Muradov. The ministry noted that the unit under Muradov’s leadership suffered significant casualties in recent months during unsuccessful offensives in Vuhledar in the Donetsk region.
The failed offensives drew criticism from pro-Russian pundits, including the troops under Muradov’s own unit. Muradov took over the unit after the failed attempt to capture Kyiv from northwest Ukraine during the early onset of the war. Muradov “is the most senior Russian military dismissal of 2023 so far,” according to the ministry.