Over 500 Russian soldiers killed or wounded in one day in Bakhmut, says Ukraine

KYIV – More than 500 Russian soldiers were killed or wounded in a recent 24-hour period during the battle for the eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut, a Ukrainian military spokesman said on Saturday, with Kyiv fending off unabating attacks and a small river that bisects the town now marking the new front line.

Mr Serhiy Cherevatyi, a Ukrainian military spokesman, said 221 pro-Moscow troops were killed and more than 300 wounded in Bakhmut. Russia’s defence ministry said that up to 210 Ukrainian soldiers were killed in the broader Donetsk part of the front line.

While Moscow did not specify Bakhmut casualties, the eastern Donetsk town, now nearly deserted, has been the site of one of the bloodiest and longest battles of the year-long war.

Both sides have admitted to suffering and inflicting significant losses in Bakhmut, while the exact number of casualties is difficult to independently verify.

British military intelligence said on Saturday that Russia’s Wagner mercenary group has taken control of most of the eastern part of Bakhmut – an advance that the group’s founder Yevgeny Prigozhin claimed last Wednesday.

“In the city centre, the Bakhmutka River now marks the front line,” the British Defence Ministry said in its daily intelligence bulletin.

Ukraine insisted that it was holding on in Bakhmut and was giving a “decent rebuff” to Russian forces, with the commander in charge of defending Bakhmut saying its protection was key for a Ukrainian counter-strike.

“It is necessary to gain time to accumulate reserves and start a counter-offensive, which is not far off,” the military cited Colonel general Oleksandr Syrskyi as saying on Saturday.

Moscow says capturing Bakhmut would punch a hole in Ukrainian defences and be a step towards seizing all of the Donbas industrial region, a major target. Kyiv says the battle is grinding down Russia’s best units.

Mr Prigozhin said on Saturday that he is now 1.2km away from the administrative centre of the city. The centre is on the west side of the Bakhmutka River.

British intelligence said that with the river running through some open ground, “this area has become a killing zone, likely making it highly challenging for Wagner forces attempting to continue their frontal assault westward”.

But the situation remained dangerous for Ukrainian forces.

“The Ukrainian force and their supply lines to the west remain vulnerable to the continued Russian attempts to outflank the defenders from the north and south,” it said. 

Russian missiles and artillery have destroyed more than 152,000 residential buildings since the start of the invasion, Ukrainian Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said on Saturday.

Ukraine has also registered 66,300 criminal proceedings of alleged crimes committed by Russian troops since Feb 24, 2022, when Moscow started what it claims is a “special military operation”. “Most of the crimes are violations of the laws and rules of war,” Mr Klymenko said in a televised interview.

Russia has carried out more than 40,000 shelling attacks on Ukrainian civilian infrastructure since last year, he added.

At least two civilians were killed with three others injured in salvo attacks on Kherson over the past day, according to the Ukrainian military.

Missiles strikes were launched on Zaporizhzhia, destroying a civilian building, though without casualties. “The threat of further missile strikes throughout the country remains quite high,” said the General Staff of the Ukrainian armed forces on its website. REUTERS