Bakhmut - The African Mirror

Mar

2023

Russians tighten noose on Ukraine’s Bakhmut, Putin warns of Western espionage

DAN PELESCHUK RUSSIAN forces pressed forward their weeks-long drive to encircle and capture the eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut, where the commander of Ukraine's ground forces described the situation as "extremely tense". Taking Bakhmut, the scene of some of the war's bloodiest battles, would be Russia's first major prize in more than six months and open the way to seizing the last remaining urban centres in the Donetsk region, one of four Moscow claims to have annexed in its "special military operation" in Ukraine. Russian President Vladimir Putin instructed the FSB security service on Tuesday to bolster security in the four regions…

Feb

2023

By The African Mirror

Zelenskiy vows to defend ‘fortress’ Bakhmut, hosts EU leaders in Kyiv

WORLD

TOM BALMFORTH and DAN PELESCHUK UKRAINIANS will fight "for as long as we can" to hold the eastern city of Bakhmut, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy vowed on Friday, as he hosted European Union leaders to discuss further sanctions on Russia and Kyiv's EU prospects. Shortly after Zelenskiy spoke, air raid sirens sounded once again in Kyiv and across the country - a regular occurrence during months of Russian missile attacks on Ukraine's energy infrastructure far from the battlefields in the east and south - but there were no immediate reports of new air strikes. The head of the EU's executive Commission…

Feb

2023

By The African Mirror

Ukrainian police rescue six-year-old girl from besieged Bakhmut

WORLD

IVAN LYUBYSH-KIRDEY UKRAINIAN police staged a risky rescue mission in the besieged eastern city of Bakhmut this week to evacuate a six-year-old girl who had become separated from her pregnant mother. Young Arina was found living with her grandparents in a run-down apartment building in Bakhmut, which has been pummelled by Russian forces in heavy fighting. After trudging through the snow to reach Arina, with artillery fire echoing in the distance, policeman Pavlo Dyachenko and two colleagues in combat gear drove Arina to the nearby city of Sloviansk to be reunited with her mother, Halyna Danylchenko. "A shell exploded in our…

Feb

2023

By The African Mirror

Russia claims village on outskirts of Bakhmut in big push in east

WORLD

DAN PELESCHUK RUSSIA claimed to have captured a village just to the north of Bakhmut, a city it is trying to surround in a major push for what would be its biggest battlefield prize in Ukraine since last summer. A Belarusian volunteer fighting for Ukraine told Reuters from inside Bakhmut that Russia was shelling the city constantly and its troops were trying to encircle it. Fighting was underway building by building, the volunteer said. There was no immediate response from Kyiv to Moscow's claim about the village of Blahodatne, and Reuters was not immediately able to verify the situation there.…