The Ukrainian military has announced it is still in control of Bahmut and has brought in elite teams to protect and reinforce supply lines leading to the city. Several attacks have been repulsed in the past 24 hours, but Russian shelling continues as invasion forces attempt to encircle the city. The commander of the Ukrainian unit in Bahmut called Friday “a massacre” on both sides. And the city’s deputy mayor says there is fighting in the streets and no building is intact.
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Mircea Geoană, on the battle for Bahmut: “It has a relative strategic importance, but it has a great symbolic relevance”
Update 13:20 – NATO Deputy Secretary General Mircea Geoană says the battle for Bahmut is not of great strategic importance, but it has a “massive” symbolic significance.
“It’s already been a bloody battle for months. It’s a relatively strategically important place, but I think it’s got massive symbolic relevance. The Russians need a small victory, especially since they had to liberate the Kherson region and they’ve lost. The front needs to advance significantly. Dynamics of War “They need somewhere to prove that things have changed. So there’s really a fight, a terrible fight,” Giona said.
He said he expected a protracted war in the neighboring country, that there were no political conditions for peace talks, and that neither Russia nor Ukraine had the ability to capture the other’s capital.
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Deputy Mayor of Bahmud: “There is not a single building in the city that has not been touched by war”
Update 12.10 – Oleksandr Marchenko, Deputy Mayor of Bahmut, said in an interview with the radio station. BBC 4 Not a single building in the city is intact due to the fighting, yet the Ukrainian army is still dealing with the attacks.
“There are fights in the city, there are fights in the streets, but thanks to the Ukrainian (Russian) army, they haven’t taken control of the city yet,” the deputy mayor said.
He also spoke about the brutality of the attacks.
“Their only goal is to genocide the Ukrainians. The tactic the Russians are using is scorched earth. They want to destroy Bahmut, they want to destroy the city. Frankly, I don’t understand why they are doing this.”
According to the deputy mayor, approximately 4,000 – 4,500 civilians in the city live in bunkers without water, gas and electricity. However, they received autonomous heating devices.
“The city was almost destroyed. There was not a single building that was not touched by the war. They were completely destroyed, entire neighborhoods and apartments,” Marchenko said.
More than 16,000 Russian soldiers died in Ukraine
Update 11:30 – At least 16,071 Russian soldiers died in Ukraine in the first year of the war, according to BBC Russia, which tallies the deaths of soldiers identified by name in collaboration with the independent Russian media site Mediazona. Independence of Kiev.
Thus, in the first year of the war in Ukraine, more Russian soldiers died than in the war in Afghanistan, which was fought between 1979 and 1989, in which the number of dead was about 15,000.
At least 1,366 of the soldiers killed were security forces mobilized by order of Vladimir Putin, the BBC and Mediazona said. 40% of them died in the last two months.
Roberta Metzola visits Kyiv again: “Ukraine’s future is membership in the European Union”
Update 11:00 – The President of the European Parliament, Roberta Metzola, visited Kyiv on Friday evening, where she met with the President of the Ukrainian Rada, Ruslan Stephansyuk, who assured her that “Ukraine’s future lies in membership of the European Union.” .
“Ukraine’s future is membership in the European Union. We will go this way,” the Maltese politician said on his Twitter account after the meeting.
Metzola can be seen hugging Rada (Ukrainian Parliament) Speaker Ruslan Stephansiuk with her message. “Good to see my friend again,” he wrote.
Ukraine’s future lies in its membership in the European Union.
We will walk with you all the way.
Nice to see you friend @r_stefanchuk Again.
Cooperation between @Europarl_EN & @ua_parliament Grow strong.
🇪🇺🇺🇦 pic.twitter.com/4Wg10EqvMm
— Roberta Metzola (@EP_President) March 3, 2023
“Cooperation between the European Parliament and the Ukrainian Parliament will be strengthened,” Medsola promised.
Stefanciuk told Metzola that he was “thankful” for the February 24 UN General Assembly resolution that reaffirmed the need for the immediate withdrawal of all Russian military forces from Ukrainian territory and an immediate end to attacks against the country’s critical infrastructure. as well as the need to achieve a general, just and lasting peace as soon as possible.
On April 1, 2022, Metzola became the first head of a European company to visit Ukraine since the start of Russia’s war of aggression against the country on February 24 of that year.
Ukrainians are still repelling Russian attacks in Bahmut
Russian artillery continues to bombard Ukrainian-controlled access roads to Bahmut, attempting to completely encircle the town. Guardian.
But the Ukrainian military has brought in elite troops as reinforcements, and soldiers are working to restore damaged roads.
Also, to the west of the city, Ukrainian troops are digging trenches and preparing new defensive positions.
Oleksandr Chirsky, commander of the Ukrainian Ground Forces, visited Bahmut on Friday and sought the situation from the commanders of the units here.
One of them, Denis Yaroslavsky, told the Espresso TV channel yesterday that there was “massacre on both sides”.
Russia’s defense minister makes rare visit to Ukraine
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu also came to Ukraine and presented medals to the soldiers.
“The Minister of Defense of the Russian Federation, General of the Army Sergei Shoigu, inspected the command post of one of the formations of the Eastern Military District in the southern direction of Donetsk,” the agency announced in a statement posted on Telegram. Agerpres.
Shoigu presented medals to Russian servicemen and inspected the ruined city together with the commander of the Eastern Military District, Colonel General Rustam Muradov.
Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in what Moscow calls a “special military operation” a year ago — according to Reuters — senior Russian military commanders have been visiting the front lines “with measure.”
Shoigu, who has been defense minister since 2012, has been heavily criticized by war supporters for his handling of the situation on the frontline, with Yevgeny Prigozhin, head of the Wagner mercenary group, last month accusing Shoigu and other military commanders of “betrayal”. “.
Putin’s chef recruits students. The “Little Wagnerites” club was opened in St. Petersburg
The “Little Wagnerites” club has opened in St. Petersburg, western Russia, with the support of Wagner mercenaries led by Yevgeny Prigozhin, writes the publication Nova Gazeta.
Special Forces officer Viktor Shmarkovsky spoke to the youth about recruitment methods and hypnosis. “Many of my colleagues served or still serve in Wagner orchestras. I have been involved in patriotic military movements and educating the youth for many years. “I look for young people who meet a few criteria: They know several languages, are in good physical condition and have parents with military connections,” Schmarkowski said.
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Author: T.R
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