Oleksandr starukh

The city of Bakhmut has for months been the center of the fighting in the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine, and the site of one of the longest and deadliest battles of the war. Here is a look at how the battle has unfolded: Summer 2022 When two Ukrainian cities in the Luhansk region of eastern Ukraine fell to Russian forces in quick succession last summer, Bakhmut, a city about 30 miles to the southwest, became the next target of Russia’s campaign to secure the whole of the Donbas. Bakhmut had been a supply hub for Ukrainian fighters in the two Luhansk cities — Sievierodonetsk and Lysychansk — and had been shelled repeatedly by Russian forces, prompting much of Bakhmut’s population of about 70,000 to flee. At that time, however, few expected the city, which was also the site of fierce fighting in 2014, to become the longest-running sustained battle of the war. Fall 2022 Russia’s assault on Bakhmut relied on tactics employed in previous … [Read more...] about The key events in the battle for Bakhmut, the war’s longest-running sustained fight.

The head of Russia’s Wagner paramilitary group said his mercenaries had captured Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine on Saturday, a claim the Ukrainian military denied even as their soldiers have been forced into an ever shrinking patch of land inside the ruined city. Senior Ukrainian military officials acknowledged that the situation inside the city was “critical,” with soldiers facing an unrelenting barrage of artillery fire and powerful aerial bombardments. Nevertheless, they said, the Ukrainian forces were still engaged in combat operations. The Russian Ministry of Defense and the Kremlin released a statement confirming the city had been “liberated,” hours after the declaration by the Wagner chief, Yevgeny V. Prigozhin , that the fight for the city was over. After nearly a year of fighting, Bakhmut has taken on an outsize importance: a symbol of Ukrainian defiance and of Russian leaders’ determination to blast their way to a small victory in a little-known corner of eastern Ukraine. … [Read more...] about Wagner Chief Says Bakhmut Is Taken; Ukraine Rejects Claim

It took the Kremlin almost a year and cost the lives of thousands of soldiers to capture Bakhmut, but now that Russian forces appear to have control of the Ukrainian city, it is fair to question the value of what they have gained. Russia’s state media has been triumphalist. One news anchor declared, “Mission accomplished” over the weekend in a segment that quoted a Russian fighter who compared the seizure of Bakhmut with the Soviet Union’s capture of Berlin in 1945. By taking Bakhmut , Russia has made its most significant territorial advance since last summer, one that Moscow will try to cast to the Russian people as a sign of military prowess on the battlefield after months of embarrassing setbacks. With his government setting the narrative of the war for a domestic audience, President Vladimir V. Putin has largely hidden its costs, including in Bakhmut, from the Russian people. A top Ukrainian official, Hanna Maliar, a deputy defense minister, essentially acknowledged … [Read more...] about Russia Claims Bakhmut, but Some See a ‘Pyrrhic Victory’

Clashes broke out on Monday in Russian villages near the Ukrainian border, according to local officials and verified videos, after a group of anti-Kremlin Russian fighters allied with Ukraine appeared to have mounted a rare ground assault inside Russia. Videos posted online and verified by The New York Times showed the aftermath of an attack on a border post near Grayvoron, a town in the Russian region of Belgorod, north of the eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv. One video showed several soldiers and three armored vehicles, including one bearing an insignia previously seen on Ukrainian equipment, around a damaged building. Another showed a soldier and an armored vehicle bearing Ukrainian markings at an intersection about three miles into Russian territory. A third video appears to show the pro-Ukrainian fighters capturing a Russian armored vehicle. A group called the Free Russia Legion , which says its ranks are made up of Russians, claimed to be behind the attacks. The group … [Read more...] about Attackers Hit Russian Border Towns; Anti-Putin Russians Say They Did It

BAKHMUT, Ukraine — Ukrainian soldiers scurried around the howitzer in a field one recent morning. In a flurry of activity, one man lugged a 106-pound explosive shell from a truck to the gun. Another, using a wooden pole, shoved it into the breach. “Loaded!” the soldier shouted, then knelt on the ground and covered his ears with his hands. The gun fired with a thunderous boom. A cloud of smoke wafted up. Leaves fluttered down from nearby trees. The shell sailed off toward the Russians with a metallic shriek. It is a scene repeated thousands of times daily along the frontline in Ukraine: artillery duels and long-range strikes from both sides on targets ranging from infantry to fuel depots to tanks. And what followed the salvo fired on Wednesday morning in eastern Ukraine was also indicative of the rhythm of this war: a coffee break. This is a war fought in a cycle of opposites — bursts of chaos from outgoing or incoming shelling, and then long lulls in which soldiers … [Read more...] about Rhythm of War: A Thunderous Blast, and Then a Coffee Break

LYSYCHANSK, Ukraine — The woman’s mission was simple: she was going shopping, and she would not be deterred. Svitlana Zhyvaga just needed to cross a bridge. But this was not just any bridge. The residents who lived nearby said it was mined. Ukrainian soldiers warned others that the bridge had been shelled and would likely be shelled again. But last Friday morning Ms. Zhyvaga, 54, woke up just before sunrise, climbed a ladder and walked across what is currently one of the most dangerous river crossings in the world. “I am actually a thrill-seeker,” Ms. Zhyvaga said. The bridge spans a roughly 250-foot-wide portion of the Siversky Donets River, which separates the eastern Ukrainian cities of Lysychansk and Sievierodonetsk. It would be completely impassable if not for several ladders connecting a collapsed section to the road above. In recent days, the three bridges connecting the two cities were destroyed, Ukrainian officials said, including Ms. Zhyvaga’s bridge, leaving the … [Read more...] about A Shopping Trip for Apples, Over the Last Bridge in Lysychansk