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Zelenskiy Vows To Strengthen Bakhmut Defense, Despite Raging Russian Assault

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Russia launched fresh waves of attacks on Bakhmut over the past 24 hours, the Ukrainian military said on March 7, as President Volodymyr Zelenskiy vowed to beef up the defense of the besieged city in the eastern Donetsk region, saying that he and his military commanders have agreed that withdrawal is not an option.

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“Over the last day, Ukrainian soldiers repelled more than 140 enemy attacks,” the General Staff of Ukraine’s Armed Forces said in its daily report, adding that Bakhmut again bore the brunt of Russia’s offensive.

Despite significant losses, the General Staff said, Russia continues to attempt to storm Bakhmut and its surroundings.

“Over the past 24 hours, the enemy has carried out 37 attacks near the village of Dubovo-Vasylivka,” it said, referring to a settlement that lies just northeast of Bakhmut.

Zelenskiy said in his nightly address on March 6 that he had discussed Bakhmut with Valeriy Zaluzhniy, the commander in chief of the armed forces, and Oleksandr Syrskiy, the commander of Ukraine’s ground forces, where “they spoke in favor of continuing the defensive operation and further strengthening our positions in Bakhmut,”according to the president’s website.

“The military command unanimously supported this position,” he said. “There were no other positions. I told the commander in chief to find the forces needed to back our boys in Bakhmut.”

Volodymyr Nazarenko, a commander of Ukrainian troops in Bakhmut, spoke in a Telegram video on March 6 about the difficult situation in and around Bakhmut, but he and other leaders vowed to continue the fight.

“The situation in Bakhmut and around it is utter hell, as it is on the entire eastern front,” Nazarenko said.

The Washington-based Institute for the Study of War said that Ukrainian defensive efforts have substantially drained Russian military resources but that Kyiv’s forces may now be conducting a “gradual fighting withdrawal” from some positions.

Ukrainian commanders, however, have pointed out that holding Bakhmut will prevent Russian forces from advancing deeper into the western part of Donetsk in the direction of Slovyansk and Kramatorsk.

New signs of discord in Moscow emerged on March 6 with the boss of the Wagner private military group, which has spearheaded much of Russia’s attack in the region. Yevgeny Prigozhin said he had demanded more ammunition supplies while complaining that one of his aides had been refused entry to the operational headquarters for the Russian military.

“On March 5, I wrote a letter to the commander of the SMO grouping about the urgent need to allocate ammunition. On March 6, at 8 a.m., my representative at the headquarters had his pass canceled and was denied access,” Prigozhin said via his press service on Telegram.

“For now, we are trying to figure out the reason: Is it just ordinary bureaucracy or a betrayal,” Prigozhin, who has repeatedly criticized Russian commanders, said according to Reuters.

RFE/RL cannot independently confirm casualty or battlefield developments claimed by either side in Russia’s yearlong full-scale war in Ukraine.

During a Middle East visit on March 6, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin downplayed Bakhmut’s significance as more “symbolic” than anything else, while declining to suggest its eventual fall to Russian forces.

“I think it is more of a symbolic value than it is strategic and operational value,” Austin said in Amman, Jordan, adding, “The fall of Bakhmut won’t necessarily mean that the Russians have changed the tide of this fight.”

With reporting by Reuters