‘Fight for every metre’
Pushilin said Ukrainian forces were continuing to throw reinforcements into Bakhmut, Marinka and Vuhledar, three towns west of Donetsk city stretching from north to south. Russian state news agency TASS quoted him as saying that Russian forces were advancing there, but “there is no clarity, that is, there is literally a fight for every metre.”
Ukraine still controls Maryanka and Vuhladar, where Russian attacks were less intense on Monday, according to Ukrainian military analyst Oleh Zhdanov.
Pushilin’s advisor, Yan Gagin, said Wagner’s fighters from the Russian mercenary force had taken partial control of a supply road leading to Bakhmut, which has been a focus of Moscow for months.
The day before, Wagner’s chief said that his fighters had secured Blahodtne, a village just north of Bakhmut.
Kyiv said it had repelled attacks on Blahodtne and Vuhledar, and Reuters could not independently verify conditions there. But the locations of the alleged battles indicated clear, though gradual, Russian gains.
Ukraine’s General Staff said that in the central Zaporizhia region and southern Kherson region, Russian forces bombed more than 40 settlements. Targets included the city of Kherson, where casualties occurred.
The military said the Russians also launched four rocket attacks on Ochakiv in southern Mykolaiv on the day Zelensky met with the Danish prime minister in the city of Mykolaiv in the northeast.
western delay
Most of the hundreds of modern tanks and armored vehicles pledged by Western countries to Ukraine in recent weeks are months away from delivery.
British Defense Minister Ben Wallace said the 14 Challenger tanks donated by Britain would be on the front line around April or May, without giving an exact timetable.
Zelensky has been urging the West to speed up the delivery of its promised weapons so that Ukraine can go on the offensive.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Western arms-suppliers were “involving more and more NATO countries directly in the conflict – but this does not have the ability to change the course of events and will not do so.”
The US-based Institute for the Study of War think-tank said last year “the West’s failure to provide necessary materials” was the main reason Kyiv’s progress stalled since November.
The researchers said in a report that Ukraine could still annex the territory after the promised weapons arrived.
The Russian invasion of Ukraine, which Moscow justified as necessary to protect itself from its neighbor’s relations with the West, has killed thousands and driven millions from their homes.