Ukraine pledges to defend ‘fortress Bakhmut' as battle rages

Kyiv has said it is holding off attacks from Russian forces still attempting to surround Bakhmut, a near-destroyed eastern city of Ukraine that Russian forces have been trying to capture for months.

Ukraine has pledged to defend “fortress Bakhmut” but has faced Russian troops determined to take the city that has become a political prize as the battle drags on.

The Ukrainian general staff said “more than 130 enemy attacks” had been repelled over the past day, including in Kupiansk, Lyman, Bakhmut and Avdiivka.

“The enemy continues its attempts to encircle the town of Bakhmut,” it said on Sunday morning.

Bakhmut has been mostly reduced to rubble during the longest and bloodiest battle of the invasion.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Sunday said Kyiv’s forces were in a “painful and difficult” battle in the eastern Donbas region, which includes Bakhmut.

“I would like to pay special tribute to the bravery, strength and resilience of the soldiers fighting in the Donbas,” Zelenskyy said in his daily address, adding “this is one of the hardest battles. Painful and difficult.”

Sergiy Cherevaty, a spokesman for Ukrainian forces, said on Saturday the situation was “difficult but under control” in the city he described as a “priority target for the enemy”.

Ukrainian Defence Minister Oleksii Reznikov told Germany’s Bild am Sonntag newspaper: “The Russians’ losses run to 500 killed and wounded every day.”

The casualty figures could not be independently verified.

According to Reznikov, Bakhmut is “a symbolic place for the Russians”, which is why they are making such efforts to capture it. However, its capture would mean nothing for the further course of fighting in the eastern Donbas region, he told the newspaper.

There is fighting in and around the city, the US-based Institute for the Study of War (ISW) said, warning that Ukrainian supply routes were narrowing.

“The Russians may have intended to encircle Ukrainian forces in Bakhmut, but the Ukrainian command has signalled that it will likely withdraw rather than risk an encirclement,” ISW said on Saturday.

Ukraine and Russia have since the summer fiercely fought for the city, whose symbolic importance has surpassed its military significance.