Ukraine says Russia using ‘scorched earth’ tactics in Bakhmut

KYIV - A senior Ukrainian commander said on Monday that Russian troops were using “scorched earth” tactics in the embattled city of Bakhmut and destroying buildings and positions with air strikes and artillery.

Ukrainian forces

have hung on for months in Bakhmut,

a small city in eastern Donetsk region dubbed the “meat-grinder”, where the fiercest fighting of Moscow’s full-scale February 2022 invasion has killed thousands of soldiers.

“The enemy switched to so-called scorched earth tactics from Syria. It is destroying buildings and positions with air strikes and artillery fire,” said Colonel-General Oleksandr Syrskyi, commander of Ukraine’s ground forces.

But the defence of the city of Bakhmut continues, he said.

Gen Syrskyi, who is overseeing the operation in the east, on Sunday visited front-line areas with the fiercest fighting around Bakhmut, Ukraine’s Military Media Centre said.

“The situation is difficult but controllable,” the general said.

Ukraine also

accused Russia of using “scorched earth” tactics last summer

in its assault on Sievierodonetsk, a city in the eastern Luhansk region.

Kyiv’s forces were forced to withdraw from that area in July after a Russian onslaught.

Ukraine has said its defence of Bakhmut

is buying time for it to build up and reconstitute forces

for a much-vaunted spring offensive and that it is inflicting huge losses on Russian forces trying to seize control.

But Russian forces have gained ground on the flanks of Bakhmut in recent weeks, threatening key supply lines for Kyiv’s defenders, and have also made advances inside the city.

The capture of Bakhmut would be Moscow’s first major gain since it took the similar-sized cities of Sievierodonetsk and neighbouring settlement Lysychansk.

Gen Syrskyi said Russia was bringing in special forces and airborne assault units to help their attack on the city as members of Russia’s private Wagner military group had become “exhausted”.

Wagner militia fighters have been spearheading the assault on Bakhmut.

Meanwhile, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky has

denounced Russian air strikes coinciding with the observance of Orthodox Palm Sunday,

including an attack that killed a father and daughter in their home in the city of Zaporizhzhia.

The State Emergencies Service said a 50-year-old man and his daughter, 11, were killed after Russian forces struck a residential building in Zaporizhzhia, in the south-east.

A woman identified as the wife and mother of the victims was pulled from under the rubble.

“This is how the terrorist state marks Palm Sunday,” Mr Zelensky said in his nightly video address.

“This is how Russia places itself in even greater isolation from the world,” he added.

The Ukrainian President praised several units defending positions in the east and said he hoped Palm Sunday in 2024 “will take place with peace and freedom for all our people”.

The majority of Ukraine’s 41 million people are Orthodox Christians who celebrate Easter a week from now.

Russia’s Defence Ministry said its forces had destroyed a depot containing 70,000 tonnes of fuel near Zaporizhzhia.

It also said Russian forces had destroyed Ukrainian army warehouses storing missiles, ammunition and artillery in Zaporizhzhia and Donetsk regions. REUTERS